Home 2013 November

Month: November 2013

Incorporations

By
Departments Incorporations

The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

AGAWAM

Real Juice Vending Inc., 53 Beekman Dr., Agawam, MA 01001. Roman Radkovets, same. Freshly squeezed juice vending machines.

BELCHERTOWN

H&D Trade Inc., 55 North Main St., #41, Belchertown, MA 01007. Zhuangping Yi, 96 Tianyao Xincun, Shanghai, SH, 200000. Video conferencing and international trade.

CHICOPEE

VB Corporation, 64 Emmett St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Volodymyr Boyko, same. Construction and sales.

FLORENCE

Phallacies Inc., 394 Spring St., Florence, MA 01062. Russell Bradbury-Carlin, 11 Stage Road, Deerfield, MA 01373. Health education, leadership development, and violence prevention for men via innovative theater, dialogue, and direct action.

GREENFIELD

Mr. Absolute Medical Resources Inc., 126 Deerfield St., Greenfield, MA 01301. Michael Ruggeri, same. Provide programs and services benefiting the public.

HADLEY

Shiki Asian Fusion, 48 Russell St., Hadley, MA 01035. Xinzhu Yang, same. Food service.

HOLYOKE

JB Engineering and Consulting Inc., 14 Ross Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. Daniel Cavanaugh, same. Consulting services.

LONGMEADOW

Critical Connections Inc.,  468 Inverness Lane, Longmeadow, MA 01106, Mehlaqa Samdani, same. Build resilient communities through analysis and outreach.

LUDLOW

Wintertreeproductions Inc., 31 Birch St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Ophelia West-Laurtes, same. Self-published literature marketing.

NORTHAMPTON

Last Call Media Inc., 244 Main St., Northampton, MA 01060. Kelly Albrecht, 15 Cowles Lane, Amherst, MA 01002. Internet and web services.

SPRIINGFIELD

Springfield Youth Christian Coalition Inc., 888 Sumner Ave., Springfield, MA 01118. Shoshana Porter, 430 Island Pond Road, Springfield, MA 01118. Conduct non-partisan research, education, and informational activities to increase public awareness of juvenile delinquency.

The Able Place Inc., 184 Bowdoin St., Springfield, MA 01109. Elaine Awand, same. Men’s halfway house with educational component.

WESTFIELD

K’s Japanese Restaurant, 318 East Main St., Westfield, MA 01085. Shong Chen, same. Restaurant.

Back Home

By
Education Sections
Square One Returns to Its Roots in the South End

Joan Kagan

After more than two years of turmoil, Joan Kagan says Square One is happy to be back home in Springfield’s South End.

Joan Kagan says she never really settled in to her office at what is now known as the Business Growth Center in the Springfield Technology Park across from STCC.
She made it comfortable, finding some non-matching office furniture from various sources — including a table to replace the cardboard box that her printer sat on for months — and securing a print depicting landmarks at her alma matter, Columbia University, that was intended to somehow fill in for the diplomas that were lost when a tornado tore down Main Street in Springfield on June 1, 2011 and essentially leveled Square One’s facilities there.
But the suites in the growth center that housed several administrators with Square One, an early-education provider with facilities in Springfield and Holyoke, were always intended to be temporary, said Kagan, adding quickly that she knew going in that this is, indeed, a relative term.
And as it turned out, the stay was less temporary than she hoped, a development forced by another calamity roughly a year ago — the natural-gas explosion that took out another of Square One’s facilities, this one on Chestnut Street — and difficulty securing a place to rebuild in the city’s South End, the institution’s long-time home, because of speculation and relative uncertainty regarding MGM’s bid to locate a resort casino there.
But in what would have to be considered one of the company’s rare instances of good fortune lately, space unexpectedly became available for lease at 1095 Main St. (the former Grape Vine liquor store), just a block or so from Square One’s former location. A few months ago, elaborate ceremonies were staged to mark the opening of the company’s Family Square center, a family resource facility, on the first floor of that three-story property, and by March, Kagan expects other programs and personnel to be moved into the renovated second floor.
The 14,000-square-foot facilities are not exactly what Square One leaders had in mind as they conceptualized plans for the next chapter in the institution’s history following the tornado, Kagan noted, adding that the preference was certainly for new construction and ownership of the eventual new home. But they represent a chance to return to the South End, which has been home since the late 19th century, and an opportunity to bring back together programs and employees that had been scattered after the twin calamities.
“It’s exciting to be back in the South End — that’s our home,” said Kagan, adding that relatively long-term leases (five years for the first floor and seven for the second) have been inked, giving Square One time and opportunity to determine what ‘home’ will be in the years and decades to come.
Much will be determined by if, where, and how the MGM facility — now the only casino proposal for the Western Mass. region still on the table — takes shape.
For now, though, Square One is focused on the immediate future and proving John Updike wrong when he wrote “you can’t go home again.”
Back in September, there was a different kind of literary look and feel to the grand opening at 1095 Main St. Indeed, students, in a nod to that classic line from The Wizard of  Oz, wore T-shirts that read “there’s no place like our new home.”
The ceremonies came a tumultuous 27 months after the June 2011 tornado changed the landscape on Main Street. The Square One facilities there were so extensively damaged that they had to be torn down.
Programs and personnel were then relocated to a number of sites, said Kagan, listing facilities on Wilbraham Road, the MCDI building on Wilbraham Avenue, and, eventually, the Technology Park at STCC, among others. “We put people anywhere we could find a desk and an office.”
After a short period devoted to stabilizing operations, preliminary planning for building a new, larger facility in the South End commenced.
This was complicated by delays in obtaining an insurance settlement, but moreso by MGM’s announced plans to build an $800 million casino in the South End, mostly on underutilized, vacant, or tornado-damaged property directly across Main Street from Square One’s former home.
“We had owned one piece of property, and we were looking to expand that piece of property,” Kagan explained. “But people were talking to MGM, and MGM was optioning some land; people were hoping that MGM would come to them and make them an offer. There were simply too many moving parts for us to do anything.”
Plans then shifted, with a new goal of finding property to lease, she went on, adding that it was serendipitous that the property at 1095 Main St. became available when a tenant slated to move in backed out of the deal.
In August, Square One opened its Family Square center, as well as one 20-student preschool classroom. The center houses a number of what Kagan called “parent education support services,” and also hosts a number of programs and services, such as a group for mothers of 5-year-old children.
There are also computers at the facilities, on which parents can search for jobs, she said, adding that the new location on Main Street enables Square One to expand services offered at the center and bring under one roof a number of programs and initiatives that were scattered across the city.
And with a new home secured, Square One officials can continue efforts to realize the growth that was anticipated in early 2011, but then essentially shelved due to the loss of facilities from the tornado and gas blast.
Elaborating, Kagan said the company had planned to bring an additional 200 children into its expanded facilities on King Street in Springfield, but that additional capacity was absorbed by the displacement of students following the tornado and gas explosion.
“Those events essentially blew my business plan out of the water,” she said, adding that process of rewriting that document is ongoing.
Growth opportunities will likely accompany an MGM casino in the South End, she said, adding that provisions for day care for the children of employees are part of the agreement between the city and the corporation, which has already had preliminary discussions with Square One about where and how to provide those services.
Meanwhile, possible expansion into Union Station, which is currently undergoing extensive renovations, remains a possibility, she said, adding that a child-care facility has long been one of the potential reuses of the station — because of its location and the public transportation that will be based there — and it remains an option for that landmark.
Looking down the road, Kagan said she’s not sure what Square One will do long term, again, because of the uncertainty regarding the MGM proposal, how it will take shape, and what additional property the casino giant may acquire.
But she says the company is committed to the South End, and to being part of that community. And as it goes about writing that next chapter, Square One will adhere to a philosophy that was actually in place long before the tornado roared down Main Street, but has been reinforced by the events of the past few years.
“We never gave up … we simply said, ‘this is what we’ve got, now how do we move forward given that this is the reality?” she explained. “One of our mantras has always been to be solution-oriented; there’s always a solution, and you just have to get creative and figure it out. But it’s there.” n

— George O’Brien

Dollars and Sense

By
Banking and Financial Services Sections
Know the Rules When It Comes to Reimbursements, Deductions

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

A taxpayer who is reimbursed for expenses paid or incurred in connection with his services as an employee doesn’t include the reimbursement in gross income if it’s paid under a reimbursement or other expense-allowance arrangement that’s an ‘accountable plan.’
A reimbursement or other expense-allowance arrangement is an arrangement that meets the following three requirements:
• A business-connection requirement, which requires the advances, allowances, or reimbursements to be for only specified, deductible business expenses that are paid or incurred by the employee in connection with his services as an employee;
• A substantiation requirement, which requires the employee to substantiate each business expense to the payor; and
• A returning-amounts-in-excess-of-expenses requirement, which requires that the employee return to the payor, within a reasonable time, any amount paid under the arrangement in excess of the expenses substantiated.
Although reasonable expectations for expenses can be used to establish that a plan meets the business-connection requirement, satisfaction of the substantiation and return-of-excess requirements must be based on expenses actually incurred.
If the arrangement meets the three requirements listed above, all amounts paid under the arrangement, up to the amount of expenses treated as substantiated, are treated as paid under an accountable plan — i.e., the amounts are excluded from the employee’s gross income, aren’t reported as wages or other compensation on the employee’s Form W-2, and are exempt from withholding and payment of employment taxes.
If the arrangement does not satisfy one or more of the requirements listed above, all amounts paid under the arrangement are treated as paid under a non-accountable plan — i.e., the amounts are included in the employee’s gross income, must be reported as wages or other compensation on the employee’s Form W-2, and are subject to withholding and payment of employment taxes.
For this reason, a court rejected a taxpayer’s argument that his substantiated payments should be treated as made under an accountable plan, while the unsubstantiated payments wouldn’t be so treated, because doing so would effectively eliminate the substantiation requirement from the accountable-plan test.
The above requirements are applied on an employee-by-employee basis. So, for example, the failure by one employee to properly substantiate expenses under an arrangement won’t cause amounts paid to other employees to be treated as paid under a non-accountable plan.
The requirements must be fully complied with; ‘substantial compliance’ won’t suffice. Additionally, there is no ‘industry practice’ exception to the accountable-plan requirements.
If a payor provides a non-accountable plan, an employee who receives payments under the plan can’t compel the payor to treat the payments as paid under an accountable plan by voluntarily substantiating the expenses and returning any excess to the payor.
Automobile expenses can be reimbursed based on actual operating expenses, using an optional mileage allowance, or based on a fixed or variable rate allowance. Travel expenses (lodging, meals, etc.) can be reimbursed based on per-diem allowances for the particular location.

What Qualifies as an Accountable Plan?
To qualify as an accountable plan, a reimbursement plan must require an employee to return to the payor (i.e., employer, its agent, or a third party), within a reasonable period of time, any amount paid under the arrangement in excess of the expenses substantiated. However, this requirement doesn’t apply to a reimbursement arrangement in which only the substantiated expenses are reimbursed. In such a plan, there should be no excess to return. The determination of whether a plan requires an employee to return amounts in excess of substantiated expenses will depend on the facts and circumstances.
Illustration 1: Employer W pays its employees a mileage allowance to cover automobile business expenses that exceeds the deemed substantiated amount by 50 cents per mile. The allowance is reasonably calculated not to exceed the amount of the employee’s expenses or anticipated expenses.
Illustration 2: In anticipation of employee business expenses that Corporation X doesn’t reasonably expect to exceed $400 in any quarter, Corporation X advances $1,000 to Employee A. Whenever Employee A substantiates an expense, Corporation X provides an additional advance in an amount equal to the amount substantiated, thereby providing a continuing advance of $1,000. The amounts advanced under this arrangement aren’t reasonably calculated so as not to exceed the amount of anticipated expenditures.
The requirement to return excess amounts is also satisfied only if the employee actually returns those excess amounts. Satisfaction of this requirement must be based on expenses actually incurred; reasonable expectations aren’t sufficient.
Although reasonable expectations for expenses can be used to establish that a plan meets the business-connection requirement, satisfaction of the substantiation and return of excess requirements must be based on expenses actually incurred.
Illustration 3: Employer Y provides expense allowances to certain of its employees to cover bona-fide employee business expenses under an arrangement that requires the employees to substantiate their expenses within a reasonable period of time and to return any excess amounts within a reasonable period of time. Each time an employee returns an excess amount to Employer Y, however, Employer Y pays the employee a bonus equal to the amount returned by the employee. The arrangement fails to satisfy the requirement to return excess amounts.
If an expense arrangement has no mechanism or process to determine when an allowance exceeds the amount that may be deemed substantiated and the arrangement routinely pays allowances in excess of the amount that may be deemed substantiated without requiring actual substantiation of all the expenses or repayment of the excess amount, the failure of the arrangement to treat the excess allowances as wages for employment-tax purposes causes all payments made under the arrangement to be treated as made under a non-accountable plan.
As a result, the payments will be included in the employee’s gross income. They will be reported as wages or other compensation on the employee’s Form W-2, and will be subject to withholding and payment of employment taxes.

Additional Hurdles
Even though amounts may be paid or reimbursed under an accountable plan, additional hurdles may apply.
Expenses paid or incurred for lodging aren’t incurred in carrying on your trade or business if the lodging is extravagant or lavish under the circumstances, or primarily provides an individual with a personal benefit — such as to allow an employee to avoid a long commute — or social benefit.
In addition to meeting the requirements for deductibility, entertainment expenses must also be directly related to the actual conduct of a taxpayer’s trade or business or, if directly preceding or following a business discussion, be associated with the actual conduct of a taxpayer’s trade or business.

Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST is a partner with the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, and director of the firm’s Taxation Division; [email protected]

Roll Player

By
Commercial Printing Sections
Pittsfield-based QualPrint Builds on a 50-Year Run of Success

Nick DiSantis

Nick DiSantis says Qualprint has long maintained a commitment to staying on the cutting edge of new printing technology.

Nick DiSantis likes telling what’s become a long-running joke regarding his father, John, and the latter’s ‘retirement’ from the Pittsfield-based family business, Quality Printing Co. Inc., or QualPrint, as it’s branded.
John, still the CEO of the company (there’s the punchline, sort of), said he’d retire once he was able to get his hands on the highest award in the international graphic arts industry — the Benjamin Franklin Award, referred to those in the print business as ‘the Benny.’
As luck would have it, in 2011, Nick, who serves as vice president, received two Bennys for a project he oversaw, and that significant event presented him with the opportunity to hand the golden hardware to his father and gently nudge him out the door.
“But he said, ‘I wanted one, not two Bennys,’” DiSantis said, laughing. “So he’s still around.”
And like his father, also named Nick, the founder of the company, who never really retired until his passing in 1998, John believes he will always be on site.
“I guess the ink is in our blood,” added Nick, as he gave BusinessWest a tour of the 30,000-square-foot QualPrint plant, along the way offering family lessons and deep insight into this industry and its future.
He said it all started in 1963, when his grandfather ran what was — for a few years, at least — a one-man show with a single printer, an operation that billed just under $200,000 that first year. Now celebrating its 50th year in business, QualPrint billed roughly $8 million in 2012.
John took over running the company in 1981, and expanded operations into the current location in 1988. And after working in every position possible in the growing shop, Nick joined the company in 2007 after earning a degree in business administration from the University of Rhode Island and master’s in print media from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The merging of what Nick calls his grandfather’s and father’s “old-school” knowledge of printing (and the world in general) with his “new-school” high-tech training and outlook is creating an interesting mix of calculated decisions that are serving the company well as this sector emerges from the Great Recession.
John and Nick have continued and built upon the founder’s attention to waste reduction and waste disposal — specifically, the effects of chemically treated products on the environment, a priority long before the words ‘green business’ or ‘recycled’ came into vogue. From solar panels covering the plant’s roof to a state-of-the-art vacuum system that captures pretty much every piece of scrap paper, QualPrint is making an eco-friendly stamp in an industry that has not been known for being green.
For this issue and its focus on the commercial printing industry, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this third-generation business that has seemingly always been ahead of its time and not afraid to take some risks to amplify its responsibility to the environment, while still providing a quality product at a competitive price.

Pressing Need
“In the digital age, people always say, ‘print is dying,’ and it’s not that way,” said Nick DiSantis. To provide evidence of this, he pointed to a section of QualPrint’s plant that is filled with glossy magazines, annual reports, postcards, posters, brochures, and direct-mail campaign pieces, in addition to the 15 million pieces of mail the company sends out per year.
With a wide array of clients, 98% of QualPrint’s work involves marketing materials, mostly for educational institutions — prep schools, colleges, and universities — as well as financial-services businesses and Fortune 500 companies.
He called the commercial-printing field a billion-dollar industry that, while growing at a snail’s pace, is growing nonetheless, and most of those that were able to ride out the Great Recession and embrace new technology are not only surviving, but thriving.
When he started full-time with the family business in 2007, the economic downturn was just getting started. He said the timing was actually a good thing, although the changing business climate was admittedly scary.
“It was a time where our company, like so many others, was seeing clients put on the brakes, and everyone had to act fast and act lean,” DiSantis said, adding that his father “sort of” joked back then that, when faced with a problem that big, you have to “forget about the arms and protect the core.”
To do so, the company mastered the art of doing more with less, which allowed QualPrint, and the younger DiSantis, to learn how to analyze the business in the toughest of times, and find its way through a housecleaning process to a new day of success. Thankfully, business started picking up in 2010.
Paying detailed attention to new technology in the marketing realm, DiSantis said QualPrint has carved out a niche as a firm that can “turn garbage into gold,” adding that the term ‘garbage’ doesn’t refer to the client quality at all, but is similar to that of an accountant receiving a shoebox full of receipts in early April. QualPrint will receive a dozen different lists of names and addresses in various file formats and make it all fit, essentially turning the company into not only an offset and digital commercial printer, but one that completes variable data, mailing, and fulfillment.
“People hand these projects off to us, and they don’t have to touch them; they just drop them off and forget about them because we’ve got the expertise in house to massage things and make then come out the way they hoped,” said DiSantis.
Offering digital services since 2001, the company spent a few risky years with a press that was too high-end for small-run client needs, but it now has an efficient and economical printer that offers saddle-stitching booklets.
DiSantis said QualPrint’s biggest challenge is keeping up with technology in an industry that is always trying to perfect processes, be more environmentally friendly, reduce expensive waste, and cut overall costs. All of that is capital-intensive.
The presses themselves cost millions of dollars — the company currently has three large off-set presses, one digital printer, and various inkjet proofing printers — and one of QualPrint’s competitive advantages, he said, is that it has always invested heavily to stay up-to-date with technology.
“Nothing in here is over five years old,” he said, adding that it’s a plus for the 48 employees who are working with, or on, the latest and greatest commercial-printing technology.
The company also recycles tons of paper on-site every month and collects scraps through a vacuum system that sucks up excess at each cutting station. Recycling continues with the aluminum printing plates, a practice that started in the ’60s with his grandfather, who refused to just throw out plates with chemicals on them or pitch used paper.
Always looking for the most environmentally friendly process with the least amount of energy consumption that is still economical and creates a superior product, QualPrint is testing a chemistry-free or ‘processless’ method of printing materials. But the current chemistry-free technology, available since 2007, is not yet up to QualPrint’s standards, said DiSantis, adding that clients like European carmaker Maserati, banks, and elite universities demand the highest in quality for their marketing materials.
One of the more expensive investments the company has made — the installation of 700 panels on the roof in 2009 — is now paying off, he noted.
“We’re unique among a lot of manufacturers and our competitors because a lot of companies will buy renewable energy — and they’re basically purchasing renewable energy ‘credits,’” he said, but not many of them actually produce renewable energy onsite. “We actually talk the talk with our solar panels, which produce about 30% of our electricity onsite.”

Stamp of Approval
With only 30% of QualPrint’s business from the Berkshire region — its market is literally the world — and certainly clients that appreciate a company that does business with a conscience.
“Today, the world is flat,” which has both benefits and drawbacks, DiSantis said. “It’s a good thing because you can compete anywhere in the world; it’s a bad thing because you’re now competing with the rest of the world.”
But this has never been a company afraid of competition, or of taking risks to position itself for continued growth and, not coincidentally, those two Bennys.
QualPrint’s been on a roll — in every sense of that word — for a half-century, and it has taken the necessary steps to make sure that continues well into the future.

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Briefcase

By
Briefcase Departments

Palmer Casino Falls in Close, Stunning Vote
PALMER — In a stunning defeat for Mohegan Sun, Palmer residents narrowly voted down a proposal to build a resort casino on property alongside the Mass Pike. Mohegan Sun has called for a recount after the proposal failed by 93 votes, 2,657 to 2,564. In an enthusiastic turnout, 62% of Palmer’s 8,412 registered voters cast ballots on Nov. 5. Mohegan Sun, which has maintained a storefront office and a high-profile presence in town for four years, is basing its recount demand on a voting machine in Precinct 2 that malfunctioned during the afternoon.
The company wanted to build a nearly $1 billion resort casino on 152 acres owned by Northeast Realty off turnpike exit 8. The host community agreement with the town, negotiated by Town Manager Charles Blanchard, pledged $20 million in revenue in the first year, and guaranteed payments of $15.2 million each year thereafter. The defeat — coupled with West Springfield voters recently rejecting a proposal by Hard Rock International to build a casino on Eastern States Exposition property — leaves Western Mass. with only one casino proposal that has been approved by residents. In July, by a 58-42 margin, Springfield voters said yes to that city’s host-community agreement with MGM Resorts International to develop a casino in the city’s South End. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will award one casino license in Western Mass. next spring, though it is unclear whether Springfield is a lock for that license. Meanwhile, in separate nonb-binding resolutions, voters in West Springfield and Longmeadow overwhelmingly opposed a Springfield-based casino. In other Election Day results, state Rep. Donald Humason defeated Holyoke City Councilor David Bartley to represent the 2nd Hampden-Hampshire District seat in the state Senate. Meanwhile, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse defeated challenger Jeffrey Stanek, while Daniel Knapik narrowly kept his mayoral post in Westfield, beating back a challenge from Michael Roeder. However, Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette fell to challenger and former mayor Richard Kos, and Ed Sullivan defeated incumbent West Springfield Mayor Greg Neffinger. Karen Cadieux won the open mayor’s seat in Easthampton.

Hampden Bank Tackles Proxy Fight
SPRINGFIELD — Last week, at its annual meeting of stockholders, Hampden Bank beat back a proxy fight from shareholders based in Texas who wanted seats on the board of directors, as Thomas Burton, Arlene Putnam, Linda Silva Thompson, and Richard Suski were elected directors for three-year terms expiring in 2016. Texas-based Clover Partners, headed by Johnny Guerry — which owns about $7.8 million in Hampden Bancorp Inc. stock, or 459,660 shares, accounting for about 8.1% of the company — had demanded a presence on the board and has been pushing Hampden Bank to explore a sale or merger with another bank to increase earnings. “We sincerely appreciate the support of our stockholders during the recent contested election,” said Glenn Welch, the bank’s president and CEO. “We look forward to returning our full attention to growing our business and increasing stockholder value.” Stockholders voted down a non-binding shareholder proposal, supported by Clover Partners, requesting that the board of directors explore avenues to enhance shareholder value through avenues such as a sale or merger. Stockholders also ratified Wolf & Company, P.C. to serve as the company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, and also approved an advisory proposal on executive compensation, which is referred to as the ‘say-on-pay’ vote. Welch countered Guerry’s concerns about profitability by noting that net income rose $1.2 million, or 22 cents a share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2014, the largest increase in net income since the bank went public six years ago and a 57% increase from the year before. At the same time, the bank’s loan portfolio stood at $482.1 million at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2014, up 6.8% compared with the same quarter in 2012. The bank’s stock price has outperformed both the NASDAQ Bank Index and the SML U.S. Bank Index over the past five years. Welch also said that a recent restructuring, which eliminated some jobs, will save the bank $1 million a year.

Effort Aims to Modernize, Preserve Public Housing
BOSTON — In a continuation of Gov. Deval Patrick’s efforts to preserve the Commonwealth’s public-housing portfolio and increase the number of affordable public-housing units available, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has announced a new initiative, the High Leverage Asset Preservation Program (HILAPP), aimed at supporting the comprehensive modernization and preservation of the state’s public housing stock. The program will support these efforts by providing grants to local housing authorities that are able to secure matching funds from local and non-DHCD sources. “Affordable public housing is in high demand across the state,” said Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Aaron Gornstein. “These funds will not only ensure that current residents live in healthy and safe environments, but that the developments are upgraded so they will last for years to come.” The DHCD also awarded nine housing authorities across the Commonwealth — Amherst, Braintree, Chicopee, Franklin County, Lexington, Malden, Middleborough, Provincetown, and Sandwich — more than $500,000 to begin the design phases of their projects. By the conclusion of this first competitive cycle, it will invest up to $5 million in capital dollars to support these local housing authorities. Between fiscal years 2014 and 2018, the DHCD intends to distribute $75 million for HILAPP projects, which will in turn leverage millions of dollars from outside sources. The DHCD will repeat the competitive award process annually, funding permitting, in order to build and maintain a consistent pipeline of HILAPP projects. Other Patrick administration reforms have included requiring local housing authorities to provide the DHCD with the salaries of their five highest-paid management staff and setting a maximum salary for local housing authority executive directors, and requiring greater reporting of financial information.

Government Shutdown Slows Business Confidence
BOSTON — The Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index lost 4.8 points in October to 46.7 as Massachusetts employers reacted to deadlock in Washington and the resulting federal government shutdown. “The great majority of survey responses came in during the shutdown, and as a debt ceiling crisis loomed,” said Raymond Torto, chairman at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA). “While the threat of a shutdown had little apparent effect on the September results, the reality in October had a big impact.” Torto pointed to responses to a special question on the business-confidence survey asking employers how the fiscal crisis would affect business conditions. “While only 13% had seen, or expected, direct impact on their operations, another 64% believed there were negative effects on overall business confidence and the  economy,” he noted. “On the other side of the ledger, 13% responded that they had not seen and did not expect negative effects, and 10% replied that ‘budget cuts and hard-line positions are ultimately positive.’ The employer community rejects the way business is being conducted in Washington, and this was consistent across industries and the range of company sizes.” The AIM index has appeared monthly since July 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative. The index reached its historic high of 68.5 on two occasions in 1997-98, and its all-time low of 33.3 in February 2009.

Massachusetts, U.S. Show Economic Growth
BOSTON — The state and national economies grew faster than expected over the summer, due to an improving housing market and wage and salary growth, according to a report by the University of Massachusetts and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The state economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate from July through September, according to the report. The national economy expanded at 2.8% rate during the same period, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. However, eonomists expect economic growth to slow next quarter as a result of the 16-day partial shutdown of the federal government last month. Employment and unemployment are among several indicators the local economists use to estimate the state’s quarterly economic growth. Other factors include state sales tax collections, a gauge of consumer spending; payroll withholding taxes, a measure of wage and income growth; consumer confidence; and the stock performance of Massachusetts companies. “The improvement in the third quarter is due to slow-but-better job growth, rising wage and salary incomes, and a higher rate of spending on items subject to sales taxes,” the report notes. “A recovering housing market and consumer and business spending are driving up economic growth.” Those improvements helped offset the economic drag from automatic budget cuts known as sequestration and higher federal payroll taxes that went into effect earlier this year. The report, published in the UMass economics journal MassBenchmarks, also revised the state’s rate of economic growth between April and June, to a 1.7% annual rate, up from previous estimate of less than 1%.

Patrick Administration Touts Conservation Efforts
WEST STOCKBRIDGE — The Mass. Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and its Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) recently joined state officials and conservationists at the Maple Hill Wildlife Management Area to celebrate the protection of over 200,000 acres of Massachusetts land after the agency acquired 3,525 acres of conservation land during fiscal year 2013. The agency now manages 200,442 acres statewide. “Gov. Patrick’s historic commitment to open-space protection has resulted in approximately 40,000 of these acres conserved since 2007,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Rick Sullivan. “I thank DFG and the many conservation organizations and individuals who contributed to this achievement.” Added DFG Commissioner Mary Griffin, “land conservation depends on partnerships with conservation organizations, land trusts, sportsmen, and conservation-minded landowners, and financial support from these groups and the state and federal government. We are grateful to 75 partners that have worked with us during the Patrick administration, and appreciate the support of all people in Massachusetts who contributed to the milestone achievement of 200,000 acres protected.” The DFG and MassWildlife jointly administer the agency’s land-protection program. Under Patrick’s tenure, the agency has invested more than $64 million for land acquisition and conserved almost 40,000 acres. The DFG has acquired conservation properties throughout the state in reaching the 200,000-acre milestone. Highlights from recent years include the Paul C. Jones Working Forest, 3,486 acres in Leverett and Shutesbury; the Flagg Mountain Wildlife Management Area, 160 acres in Conway; the West Brookfield Wildlife Management Area, 320 acres in West Brookfield; the Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area, 39 acres in Townsend; and the Halfway Pond Wildlife Management Area, 152 acres in Plymouth.

PictureThis

By
Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to:  ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Ignite, Dream, Embrace
GrinspoonStuGrinspoon






The 9th Annual Grinspoon, Garvey & Young Entrepreneurship Conference, with the slogan “Ignite the Dream, Embrace the Journey,” was staged Nov. 1 at the MassMutual Center. The day-long conference featured 500 faculty and students from 14 colleges and universities across the Pioneer Valley and included teamwork and breakout sessions that took a closer look at how one goes about starting, growing, and ultimately succeeding in an entrepreneurial venture, securing funding and support for a business, and product development. At left, Thom Fox, right, with Valley Venture Mentors and BrunoFox Group, speaks with
Lisa Lococo, also of Valley Venture Mentors and American Eagle Cycles Inc. At right, Harold Grinspoon (left), founder of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and former Grinspoon Award winner Mike Deschamps, from Cell Assist.

Valley Talent
YPSpanelBusinessWest Editor, George O’Brien recently moderated a special Young Professionals of Greater Springfield (YPS) CEO Luncheon co-produced by YPS and Northampton Area Young Professionals. The event, held at Slainte! Restaurant in Holyoke featured local young entrepreneurs, and those that support them, as they discussed what steps the Pioneer Valley needs to take to foster entrepreneurship and cultivate talent. O’Brien, far left, is pictured with panelists (from left), Scott Foster, partner with Bulkley Richardson and co-founder of Valley Venture Mentors; Kara Martin Snyder, owner/chief coach, Vital Corps, Holistic Living for the Modern World; Delcie Bean IV, president, Paragus IT and Valley Technology Outreach; and Justin Pelis, owner, North Country Landscapes & Garden Center.

Climate Change

By
Features
Chambers Respond to a Challenging New Environment

Jeff Ciuffreda

Jeff Ciuffreda says the ACCGS and Springfield Chamber have “retooled” when it comes to the services offered to members.

Roy Nascimento told BusinessWest that there’s a saying of sorts used within his industry, one that goes something like this: “when you’ve seen one chamber of commerce … you’ve seen one chamber of commerce.”
The president and CEO of the New Bedford Area Chamber and the incoming president of the Mass. Assoc. of Chamber of Commerce Executives (MACE) summoned that phrase to express the sentiment that, while many have a tendency to paint these institutions with one broad brush, they are in many ways very different from one another.
This is true with regard to everything from size to geography to the specific focus of programs and energy within each organization, he said, noting that his chamber, for example, leads a number of initiatives aimed at supporting and growing the New Bedford area’s $1 billion fishing industry.
But despite these apparent differences, chambers across this state — and around the country, for that matter — are facing some common, and formidable, challenges.
Chief among them is membership. It is down for almost all chambers, and by 25% or more at many of them from 10 or even five years ago, said Jeffrey Ciuffreda, president of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield and executive director of the Springfield Chamber. That latter organization had perhaps 750 members five years ago, he said, and now counts roughly 520, a nearly 30% decrease that he described as “typical,” at least in his estimation.
There are several reasons for such drops, said Ciuffreda and others we spoke with. He and Nascimento both mentioned lingering effects from the Great Recession and a related, ongoing trend toward consolidation in many industries — from banking to insurance; from healthcare to the media — that has simply left fewer players to pay dues to a chamber.
But there are other factors, said Ciuffreda, listing everything from competition from other chambers and groups such as young professional organizations to some changing attitudes about chambers on the part of the mostly smaller businesses that now dominate membership rosters.
“Before, the larger, more established corporations joined the chamber because it was the right thing to do, and the chamber was looked upon as the chief cheerleader for that community,” he said. “Now, when you’re out there getting new members, you’re getting mostly smaller businesses that are looking to the chamber for more assistance, guidance, and some advocacy.”
Summing it all up, Ciuffreda described the current environment as “the changing face of chambers,” and said some organizations are reacting to it more quickly and more effectively than others. Overall, chambers are doing things they haven’t done recently, or much at all, he told BusinessWest, mentioning such initiatives as strategic planning, marketing studies, and deep introspection about mission, programming, and ways to bring more value to members and prospective members.
According to Kate Phelon, a relative newcomer to chamber administration — she took the reins of the Greater Westfield organization three years ago — while providing value has always been a key element in any chamber’s success, in this changed environment it is more imperative than ever to provide what amounts to ROI to members.
And this means all members, she said, adding that the Westfield Chamber has been working to identify the needs of specific sectors, or groups, and develop programs to meet them.
Kate Phelon

Kate Phelon says the Westfield Chamber is focused on finding ways to serve members across all business sectors, from manufacturers to nonprofits.

“Not all members have the same needs, nor do they all see the same value in their chamber,” she explained. “If you look at manufacturers, nonprofits, and very small businesses, those with three employees or fewer, they all see a different value. My manufacturing members will not get business coming to an after-5 event, but my nonprofits and small businesses love those events; it’s their bread and butter. Providing value to each one of these groups is a real challenge, but you have to meet it.”
Kathy Anderson, who segued from Holyoke City Hall, specifically the office of Planning and Economic Development, to the directorship of that city’s chamber 18 months ago, agreed.
She said the Holyoke Chamber has been aggressive in development of new programs, ranging from an ‘Ask a Chamber Expert’ initiative to an endeavor to spotlight the work of manufacturers based in the city, to something called SPARK (Stimulating Potential, Accessing Resource Knowledge), a venture aimed at “fanning the flame of entrepreneurship” (more on these efforts later).
They were all blueprinted, she said, to provide value-added services to different business groups, while also enabling the chamber to “keep changing and evolving, and providing something fresh and different.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this changing face of chambers of commerce, and at what area organizations are doing to adjust to — and thrive in — this new environment.

Matters of Relevance
As he talked about the current climate for chambers and their leaders, Nascimento said there are both challenges and opportunities, and that the common denominator involving elements of each category is the term ‘relevance.’
He used it to describe what chambers must have at a time when they are smaller — at least in terms of membership — than they were years ago, but more is being asked from them, both in the community and from those members.
“Relevance is not a new term, but it is re-emerging within our industry,” he explained. “Is the programming relevant to our members? Is it adding value to our members? Is it providing value to our communities?”
Elaborating, he said that the chambers that are most effectively responding to the changing times are becoming involved in the many facets of economic development — from education to tourism to advocacy — and are becoming more focused on the communities they’re serving.
As examples, he noted his chamber’s work to support the fishing industry — it has helped create what’s known as a ‘seafood buyers mission,’ an event that last year recorded $12 million in sales — and also its work with other groups to revive the region’s convention and visitors bureau, thus bolstering another strong sector of its economy.
There are similar examples from across the state, he said, adding that proactive chambers are changing and getting more involved, again, out of necessity, to gain and retain members.
Indeed, the biggest challenge facing what Nascimento called the “chamber industry” is the same one confronting most all business sectors — ongoing consolidation.
“Our members are merging, they’re being bought out, they’re retiring, and all because of a number of factors — globalization, competition, and others,” he explained, noting that his chamber has seen membership drop from 1,200 to roughly 950 over the past decade or so. “The market out there for traditional members of a chamber are the stakeholders in the business community — your banks, your credit unions, insurance companies, printers, local media, hospitals — and all those industries are consolidating themselves.
“Since I’ve been here over the past seven years, we’ve seen several of our local community banks merge with other community banks that are members,” he went on. “And we’ve seen media merge; at one point, we had a daily newspaper in New Bedford, another daily in a neighboring community, a business publication, and a weekly newspaper in each of the towns. Now, there’s one company that owns them all.”
Similar developments have taken place within the insurance sector, where a number of smaller, family owned agencies have been merged into larger operations; the printing sector; and even office supplies, he said. “We used to have three or four office-supply companies in New Bedford, but they’re all gone — there’s one company, and it’s a regional company.”
This “shrinkage” within the marketplace, as he called it, has left chambers with little choice but to sharpen their focus on services to members and find new — or sometimes old — ways to be relevant.
Ciuffreda agreed, and said the ACCGS and the Springfield Chamber are responding to this challenge in many ways, but mostly a sharper focus on identifying needs and concerns among members — and in the community — and then addressing them.
“We’ve retooled a little bit,” he told BusinessWest, using a word he would come back to often. “When we look at the reasons why people join chambers, it’s clear that we’ve moved on from those days when it was the right thing to do. People are much more focused on services and what they can get out of being a member.”
And this goes beyond benefits such as programs that aggregate small businesses to provide savings on health insurance or discount pharmacy cards, he went on, adding that members are looking for more technical assistance, advocacy, and involvement in key issues.
He said the ACCGS, which has been “in and out” with regard to providing technical assistance to small businesses, will look to get back in if funding can be secured from the state and the private sector. Meanwhile, he said the organization is already more involved in such matters as education and closing the so-called skills gap that is impacting many sectors.
“We’re getting much more involved in education because we are hearing from businesses that want to expand that there is clearly a skills gap,” he noted. “We’re more involved with the school systems, the vocational schools, and the community colleges to try and close that gap.”

Getting Down to Business
The need to effectively identify member needs and tailor a roster of services to meet them is one of many motivating factors behind the ACCGS’s continued involvement in programs with marketing and business students at Western New England University, specifically those taught by marketing professor Janelle Goodnight.
She told BusinessWest that, on several occasions, her students have gathered research on the ACCGS, competing chambers in this region, and chambers in general, and then developed comprehensive marketing plans for consideration.
The latest of these plans will be ready by the end of the fall, she said, adding that, because the ACCGS is a client, she could not get into specifics about what will likely be in the document. But she did say that research conducted last spring revealed that many ACCGS members and prospective members did not fully understand the full range of services the chamber provides, and thus need an education through effective marketing.
Meanwhile, that research also revealed that the chamber’s membership is getting older — “members are aging out” was the phrase Goodnight used — and it is not as diverse, from a demographic standpoint, as the region it serves. Thus, moving forward, two obvious goals are to attract both younger business owners and minority business owners.
The need to more effectively serve members represents one of the many ways in which chambers are very much like the small businesses that dominate their membership roles, said Phelon. They are still coping with the lingering effects of the Great Recession, she noted, but also myriad other issues, ranging from the challenge of understanding and making effective use of technology to mastering the many nuances of social media, to simply finding ways to grow in an environment where it is difficult to do so.
“I have IT issues every day,” she said. “Things are changing constantly … should I get this piece of equipment? How am I going to swipe my credit cards? It’s very hard to keep up, and that’s just one challenge we’re facing.”
Some of the others give credence to Nascimento’s comments about each chamber being different. The Westfield Chamber, for example, serves 10 communities. Westfield and Southwick are home to most members, but the organization’s reach also extends to the small hilltowns (many with populations of 1,000 people or fewer) to the west.
Reaching out to the business owners in these communities, and then convincing them to take part in events and programs several miles down Route 20, can be difficult, she went on, but succeeding in those efforts not only helps the chamber, but it builds a stronger regional business community.
Phelon’s philosophy is summed up in the slogan she puts on the front of her membership packets: ‘The Power of Connectivity.’
She said it refers to the many ways in which the chamber can provide connections — from face-to-face networking events, which she still considers far more effective than social-media outlets, to simply providing information that can help a business owner solve a problem or seize an opportunity.
Phelon said the Westfield Chamber probably had between 400 and 450 members in the late ’80s, but is now roughly half that size, with about 215 at present. While it is not realistic to think the organization can again reach its high-water mark, she said there is certainly room for improvement, and it’s happening, thanks in large part to the hiring of a business development manager.
“Now, we’re actually growing,” she said, noting that, in recent years, new memberships have barely kept pace with the inevitable attrition chambers see each year. “And our ability to keep growing is related directly to our success with providing value to all our members.”

Value Proposition
As she talked about the many new initiatives at the Greater Holyoke Chamber, Anderson said they’ve been developed with several goals in mind. Providing more value to members is obviously one of them, she noted, but beyond that is a desire to help businesses with the challenges that are common to all of them — marketing, gaining new business, and saving money.
One of these concepts, called ‘Ask a Chamber Expert,’ has all these goals in mind.
Started last year, this series of workshops, as the title suggests, enables participants to ask a designated chamber member about some specific subject matter, which to date has included ‘How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business,’ ‘How to Use LinkedIn as a Connecting Point,’ ‘How to Write a Business Plan,’ and even ‘How to Read a Blueprint,’ a requested program that was comparatively well-attended.
“I certainly learned a lot that day,” said Anderson, adding that the program brings benefits to both those asking the questions and those answering them.
“If I use my own members for these workshops and they become the expert in the room, this gets the people to network and know the businesses within our chamber organization,” she explained. “But it also gives low-cost [$10] advice to members, and if they want more help beyond that and want to hire that person to help them, they can do that.”
Meanwhile, another new initiative is aimed specifically at manufacturers, a constituency that, as Phelon noted, doesn’t directly benefit from many traditional chamber programs, such as after-5 events and breakfasts, where service-related businesses can more easily secure new customers.
The multi-faceted initiative is instead designed to build awareness of manufacturing facilities, said Anderson, noting that such exposure could help generate new business while also introducing young people to potential career opportunities.
“October was Manufacturing Month,” she said, pointing to a full slate of events and programs designed to celebrate and draw attention to that sector. “We had three different tours of manufacturing facilities, and they were open to the public because manufacturers want people to know what they do and what’s being made in the community.”
Another endeavor, in which the chamber will partner with the city’s Boys & Girls Club and, more specifically, with those involved in videography, will place three-to five-minute vignettes about Holyoke-area manufacturers on the chamber’s website.
“This is a value added for them, because they want people to know what they’re doing,” she explained, adding that businesses with specific needs may learn that a Holyoke business can make that part or product. “And down the road, we’re going to have a number of Baby Boomers retiring, and there are questions about who’s going to fill those positions. This program will allow these companies to show what kinds of great jobs there are in our manufacturing businesses.”
And then, there’s SPARK, which is designed to help people bring ideas to reality, said Anderson, by connecting individuals with resources and getting them the support they need. The program will offer mentoring, training, advising, tutoring, teaching opportunities, micro loans and below-market real-estate services, she noted, adding that the name was chosen in part to recognize those who have the ‘spark,’ or desire, to take their dreams to the next level, but need various forms of help to make them happen.
Like Phelon, Ciuffreda, and Nascimento, Anderson also mentioned efforts to partner with other chambers and various economic-development-related organizations to bring still more value to members and bolster the business community or specific sectors within it.
These efforts and the others chronicled above represent a response to the new landscape facing chambers, said Nascimento, adding quickly that the scene didn’t change overnight, and the necessary adjustments won’t come that quickly either.
“There are a lot of challenges for chambers,” he said in conclusion, “but there are also a lot of opportunities. This is an exciting time for chambers and our industry; we’re helping our members, and our communities, with many difficult challenges taking place out there.”

Joining the Fight
While Nascimento contends that if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen just one chamber, these organizations are facing a number of common challenges in a climate seemingly far removed from the one that existed decades ago, when joining the chamber was simply the responsible thing to do.
Words like ‘value’ and ‘relevance’ were not recently added to the chamber industry’s lexicon, but they have certainly taken on new meaning — and importance.
And they will continue to be watchwords in the months and years to come.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Editorial

By
Opinion
Life in a Changed Casino Landscape

What a difference a year makes.
At just about this time last year, there were five proposals for a Western Mass. resort casino on the drawing board — or close to being there — in Springfield, West Springfield, and Palmer, and there was potential for another taking shape in Holyoke.
And all this attention to the western portion of the state was resulting from the perception that the stars — politically and otherwise — were aligned for a casino at Suffolk Downs in East Boston and that it seemingly made little sense to enter that fray.
Today, there is one Western Mass. casino plan still on the table after the voters in West Springfield and Palmer said no to the proposals for their communities, and the Springfield competition was whittled from three to one. Meanwhile, the voters of East Boston turned thumbs down to the Suffolk Downs plan, leaving those developers faced with a long-shot (that’s an industry term) bid to shift the site of the planned construction to 51 acres they own in neighboring Revere, where voters actually said ‘yes.’
Quite the turn of events.
So, what are we to make of all this? For starters, it’s quite evident that while the Legislature finally came around to the idea of commencing the casino era in Massachusetts, the voters, except those in a few isolated communities, including Springfield, have said, in essence, ‘fine, but not in my town.’
This sentiment was not surprising in West Springfield, where the casino planned for the Big E seemed a stretch, and the concerns about traffic were considerable. But the Palmer vote was a shocker, because this was a community that seemingly wanted a casino and, much like Springfield, lacked anything approaching a plan B when it comes to job creation and economic development.
All this means that the competition the Mass. Gaming Commission and its chairman, Stephen Crosby, were so desperate to create 18 months ago has all but dissolved, especially here, in the four counties of Western Mass.
And this has us somewhat worried, because while MGM, the lone casino developer still standing in Western Mass. and the owner of an apparently free ride to the coveted license for this region, is a responsible company that has done just about everything right so far in this contest, this region would certainly benefit from having that competition.
That’s because competition always makes a company better. That’s the case in every other business sector, and it is certainly so with gaming. Had the voters of Palmer said ‘yes,’ the commission would have had an intriguing matchup to decide, a classic urban-versus-surburban contest that would have given the decision makers quite a bit to think about.
It is now incumbent upon the Gaming Commission to create this competition artificially, for lack of a better term.
There may be only one casino proposal for Western Mass., but it must still be a first-class operation that works for Springfield and, to the greatest extent possible, for the many impacted communities as well.
We have endorsed the MGM proposal as the best of the options for Springfield, and we still have confidence that this operator can and will build a facility that will help — that’s help — revitalize the city and especially its South End, but without negatively impacting existing cultural attractions and businesses in the hospitality sector.
In this now radically changed casino landscape where competition here no longer exists, it’s up to the Gaming Commission to make sure that’s what happens.

Opinion

By
Opinion
Can Springfield Learn from Cleveland?

By NANCY URBCHAT

Four years ago, I attended my first Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) Conference in Washington, D.C. It was thrilling to spend two days in the company of some very smart people who have dedicated their professional lives to reinvigorating cities. I came away so moved and armed with verifiable facts that I felt compelled to advocate for a more vibrant small-business environment in my own city — Springfield.
This year’s conference, held in Cleveland, Ohio, held a special attraction for me. Having grown up in Northeastern Ohio, I was particularly interested in reconnecting with a city that had, by most accounts, befallen a fate typical of Rust Belt cities. I knew I had to make the investment and attend.
I was not disappointed. Day one featured panelists from Cleveland. One discussion focused around the integral role the Cleveland Foundation has played in Cleveland’s recovery. The foundation’s top priority is strengthening the urban core, and, to that end, it has made economic-development grants totaling $85 million since 2006.
The Cleveland Foundation is also a power broker, bringing Case Western Reserve and competitors University Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic to the table. Today, these powerhouse players are transforming public transportation, the economic vibrancy of the region’s small businesses, and the health and well-being of several distressed neighborhoods.
Collectively, they have made significant investment in the city’s rapid transit, known as the HealthLine. Its tagline, “It’s not a bus. It’s not a train. It’s the future” provides a sense of the project’s magnitude. Travel down Euclid Avenue — a once-distressed, 9.8-mile thoroughfare — and see urban transformation at its best. Billions of dollars in economic investment have happened thanks to the combined efforts of this public/private partnership, a visionary transit authority, a willing city government, and federal and state public transportation dollars.
Another topic was the importance of buying local and developing a standard definition of exactly what that means. Consider University Hospital. The organization has completely redefined and restructured its purchasing policies. Any project with a value of $20,000 or more must include bids from local companies. Many of the revised policies now make it feasible for small businesses to successfully compete on, and win, business.
Cleveland Clinic has launched ‘Meet the Neighbor’ events in some of the most distressed adjacent neighborhoods. A homeowner is recruited who serves as host for a neighborhood gathering. The clinic provides refreshments and a facilitator. Neighbors are often meeting one another for the first time. The facilitator engages neighbors in an exploration of neighborhood problems.
Together, they identify a pressing problem and roll up their sleeves to solve it. Sometimes it takes more than sweat to solve urban problems. Cleveland Clinic provides grants of up to $5,000 to assist these local problem solvers.
Upon my return to the City of Homes, I asked myself, “why not in Springfield?” My opinion is that economic-development initiatives have largely taken a back seat to the casino proposal. Certainly, an $800 million project is sure to get people’s attention, but my guess is the casino was never intended as a panacea and the be-all, end-all of economic development. Yet, that is what it appears to have become. For the record, Cleveland’s new casino was never mentioned once during the conference.
Vision and leadership were also in evidence in Cleveland. Mayor Frank Jackson and members of his economic-development team also appeared on the conference roster. Smart, capable, and committed people are working in concert with the partners I listed earlier. People working in silos don’t transform cities.
Finally, there’s an intangible at work. Let’s call it the love factor. People who participate in the ICIC love cities. In particular, they have a passion for their work and the well-being of their respective cities. They also happen to have positions of power and authority. Somehow they have come to the realization that transforming cities requires one’s self-interest to take a back seat to the greater good.
That may sound a bit ‘pie in the sky,’ but that seems to be what’s at work in Cleveland and Detroit. And I, for one, would love to see that happen in Springfield.

Nancy Urbchat is a principal with Springfield-based TSM Design.

Building Permits

By
Building Permits Departments

bThe following building permits were issued during the month of November 2013.

AMHERST

Gordon Chen
319 Main St.
$8,500 — New roof

Pauline Lannon
1151 West St.
$15,650 — New roof

CHICOPEE

Newark Paper Board Products
70 Better Way
$30,000 — Add office space and stairway to second floor

Westover Metropolitan Development Corp.
55 Lonczac Dr.
$787,000 — Construct 50×80 building for snow-removal equipment

NORTHAMPTON

AMO Development LLC
182 Mount Tom Road
$51,200 — Remove fire damaged roof and replace

Brooke Schnabel
21 North Main St.
$21,500 — Structural repair

CBRE
144 Main St.
$33,500 — Replace carpet and reconfigure teller line to create waiting area

Elizabeth Cole
59 Service Center Road
$32,000 — Construct handicap accessible bathrooms for health fitness facility

Jack Finn
57 King St.
$240,000 — Construct addition and install elevator

Meadowbrook Preservation Associates
491 Bridge Road
$58,000 — Renovate units and replace windows

New Silk Mill, LLC
15 Straw Ave.
$78,500 — Install new rubber roof

Unique Lodging, LLC
74 Bridge St.
$94,000 — Interior renovation

PALMER

Crown Castle International
26 Robinson Road
$15,000 — Add two new antennas to existing tower

Ron Izyk
158 State St.
$12,800 — New roof

SOUTH HADLEY

Wingate
573 Granby Road
$8,000 — Roof repairs

SPRINGFIELD

Baystate Health Inc.
759 Chestnut St.
$15,000 — New roof

City of Springfield
1476 Parker St.
$32,000 — Construct pavilion building

Mass Mutual
1295 State St.
$350,000 — Interior renovations

Mercy Hospital
233 Carew St.
$476,000 — Third-floor renovation of the Weldon Rehabilitation Building

National Ambulance
425 St. James Ave.
$5,000 — Reface front of building

Yellowbrick Property, LLC
21 Cedar St.
$25,000 — Exterior renovations

WEST SPRINGFIELD

CHH Auxillary Building
1999 Westfield St.
$22,000 — Building improvement

Reda Ishak, M.D.
112 Westfield St.
$5,000 — Renovate commercial space to doctor’s office

Real Estate Transactions

By
Departments Real Estate

The following real estate transactions (latest avail­able) were compiled by Banker & Tradesman and are published as they were received. Only transactions exceeding $115,000 are listed. Buyer and seller fields contain only the first name listed on the deed.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

BERNARDSTON

9 South St.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $597,000
Buyer: Edward D. Dearborn
Seller: Edward D. Dearborn
Date: 10/07/13

BUCKLAND

98 Elm St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $140,500
Buyer: Stephen M. Wells
Seller: Tina L. Annear
Date: 10/11/13

COLRAIN

303 Adamsville Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Rachel C. Marston
Seller: Elizabeth M. Galvahni
Date: 10/16/13

63 North Green River Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Michael B. Cole
Seller: Kate B. Marmaras LT
Date: 10/18/13

CONWAY

3120 Shelburne Falls Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Huong C. Chow
Seller: Hilma M. Raffa
Date: 10/11/13

DEERFIELD

19 Elm Circle
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Melony M. Lucas
Seller: James R. Talbot
Date: 10/18/13

67 Graves St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $294,000
Buyer: Nathaniel J. Malloy
Seller: Linda L. Prokopy
Date: 10/18/13

3 Sugarloaf St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Jane Trigere
Seller: Bank of America
Date: 10/18/13

ERVING

4 Wells St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Shane R. Roberts
Seller: James M. Korpita
Date: 10/11/13

GREENFIELD

30 Brookside  Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Hilma Raffa
Seller: Maynard, Don L. (Estate)
Date: 10/11/13

72 Elm St.
Greenfield, MA 01376
Amount: $132,500
Buyer: Hsien Fu Chang
Seller: George R. Marchacos
Date: 10/07/13

47 Highland  Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Cornelia A. Miller
Seller: Tracey M. Sutphin
Date: 10/16/13

22 Pleasant St.
Greenfield, MA 01376
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Michael A. Noyes
Seller: James R. Wade
Date: 10/18/13

126 Poplar St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $199,500
Buyer: Gary S. Moran
Seller: Paul N. Billings
Date: 10/17/13

LEVERETT

412 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $359,387
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Robert Kaufman
Date: 10/09/13

MONTAGUE

7 Bridge St.
Montague, MA 01349
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: Seth R. Alnsworth
Seller: James W. Wright
Date: 10/15/13

15 Davis St.
Montague, MA 01301
Amount: $675,000
Buyer: Phyllis T. Boucher
Seller: Henry G. Boucher
Date: 10/07/13

11 K St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Michael Nelson
Seller: Wendy E. Redlinger
Date: 10/18/13

50 Vladish  Ave.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $185,250
Buyer: Wendy E. Kostecki
Seller: Ronald C. Murley
Date: 10/18/13

NORTHFIELD

23 Holly  Ave.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $128,900
Buyer: Ryan P. O’Connell
Seller: Andrea C. Crommett
Date: 10/18/13

73 Pine St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Amy L. Stratford
Seller: Douglas A. Baker
Date: 10/09/13

ORANGE

87 Prescott Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Joseph A. Dodge
Seller: Nancy R. Kelly
Date: 10/17/13

183 Walnut Hill Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Pater Walsh
Seller: William S. Page
Date: 10/07/13

SHELBURNE

71 Main St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $333,500
Buyer: Craig N. Weatherby
Seller: Karen A. Bouquillon
Date: 10/15/13

SUNDERLAND

392 Montague Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $915,000
Buyer: William A. Saltman
Seller: R. Square Realty LLC
Date: 10/16/13

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

37 Bailey St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Michael L. Kunze
Seller: Dorothy M. Frenette
Date: 10/17/13

74 Liquori Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Jeffrey W. Hamer
Seller: David E. Lemieux
Date: 10/11/13

366 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Joseph D. Valenti
Seller: Burke, Gerald M. (Estate)
Date: 10/07/13

366 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Joseph D. Valenti
Seller: Burke, Gerald M. (Estate)
Date: 10/18/13

976 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Ivan Hrytskevich
Seller: Christopher S. Scibelli
Date: 10/11/13

53 Mark Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $364,900
Buyer: Arben Ademi
Seller: Langone Realty Corp.
Date: 10/07/13

131 North West St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $165,900
Buyer: Jeffrey Hastings
Seller: FNMA
Date: 10/16/13

62 Northwood St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Richard B. Smith
Seller: Chad J. Mirabile
Date: 10/18/13

4 Pleasant Valley Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Hugh K. Martin
Seller: Veena Juroshek
Date: 10/09/13

140 Ridgeway Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $296,000
Buyer: John E. Nordquist
Seller: Deborah A. Burba
Date: 10/11/13

65 Spear Farm Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $417,000
Buyer: Romano M. Daniele
Seller: George E. Reed
Date: 10/18/13

38 Zacks Way
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $387,800
Buyer: William H. Cullen
Seller: T. Russo Construction Corp.
Date: 10/16/13

BRIMFIELD

295 Sturbridge Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $263,080
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Jeffrey A. Stark
Date: 10/15/13

CHICOPEE

93 Bay State Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $186,500
Buyer: Joshua M. Dupuis
Seller: Albert J. Adams
Date: 10/18/13

47 Beaudry  Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Kayla N. Weagle-Bruso
Seller: Steven J. Laing
Date: 10/11/13

34 Blanche St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Anthony C. Perla
Seller: Richard L. Laflamme
Date: 10/18/13

315 Columba St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Andrew M. Boryczka
Seller: John F. Boryczka
Date: 10/07/13

54 Dorrance St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Darrell E. Lyford
Seller: Constance F. Fedora
Date: 10/18/13

16 Edmund St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $149,000
Buyer: Gloria Gonzalez
Seller: Marianne S. Boyd
Date: 10/15/13

68 Factory St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Robert R. Mercer
Seller: Marie T. Appleby
Date: 10/08/13

147 Fair St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Antonio M. Santos
Seller: Maria M. Rafael
Date: 10/09/13

320 Hampden St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Amanda Latour
Seller: Raymond L. Breton
Date: 10/15/13

8 Nash St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: David E. Hajec
Seller: Hajec, Bertha I. (Estate)
Date: 10/11/13

61 New York  Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Stephen A. Pilegi
Seller: Valeriy Kuznetsov
Date: 10/18/13

11 Silvin Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Terry Dyer
Seller: Dorothy A. Davitt
Date: 10/11/13

EAST LONGMEADOW

73 Braeburn Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $276,000
Buyer: Quintin Jordan
Seller: Moltenbrey Builders LLC
Date: 10/11/13

42 Lee St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Rameshbhai A. Patel
Seller: Michael A. Trinceri

64 Pleasant St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $153,221
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Christina L. Carlson
Date: 10/17/13

27 Saugus  Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: David Tower
Seller: Joseph A. Dascoli
Date: 10/15/13

35 Windham Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Joseph A. Dascoli
Seller: Christopher M. Buendo
Date: 10/15/13

55 Windham Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Majid Din
Seller: Paul A. Iellamo
Date: 10/08/13

HOLLAND

2 North Leisure Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Eric T. Mance
Seller: Craig J. Stavola
Date: 10/07/13

HOLYOKE

58 Elmwood  Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Israel Acosta
Seller: Teresa A. Pudlo
Date: 10/17/13

46 Richard Eger Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Arthur P. Cicerchia
Seller: N. K. Lefebvre
Date: 10/09/13

35 Ridgewood  Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Michael L. Johnson
Seller: Patrick J. Higgins
Date: 10/10/13

2 Rock Valley Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $245,000
Seller: Rodney Faille
Date: 10/15/13

LONGMEADOW

15 Belleclaire  Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Elizabeth M. Morgan
Seller: Stuart G. Lempke
Date: 10/18/13

225 Blueberry Hill Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Joseph H. Vandeventer
Seller: Amy J. Wiatrowski
Date: 10/10/13

179 Cambridge Circle
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Jeffrey E. Sullivan
Seller: Sandra J. Gauthier
Date: 10/15/13

38 Fernleaf  Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Lauren Lanza
Seller: John M. Bowen
Date: 10/09/13

38 Hazelwood  Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Neil A. Daboul
Seller: Paul S. Fish
Date: 10/16/13

44 Homestead Blvd.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: Linda L. Lasorsa
Seller: Aimee S. Bareiss
Date: 10/11/13

85 Maple Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $267,500
Buyer: Mack A. Lynch
Seller: Denise J. Smith
Date: 10/09/13

10 South Park Place
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: David Deluca
Seller: Elizabeth Robinson
Date: 10/08/13

LUDLOW

145 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $274,900
Buyer: Richard Z. Budzyna
Seller: Florinda Dias
Date: 10/18/13

1158 East St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Pedro P. Pereira
Seller: Jeffrey Rolo
Date: 10/15/13

58 King St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Marc J. Dias
Seller: Paul J. Adzima
Date: 10/07/13

182 Lakeview  Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Maria A. Azevedo
Seller: Mitchell M. Mazur
Date: 10/16/13

146 Oak Knoll Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $211,500
Buyer: Matthew R. Niles
Seller: Lorraine Nutting
Date: 10/08/13

53 Parker Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Jaime Goncalves
Seller: Charlotte G. Schnur
Date: 10/17/13

Rosewood Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Kevin F. Bradley
Seller: Rosewood Meadows Inc.
Date: 10/18/13

Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Seth M. Beal
Seller: Villeneuve, Michelle S. (Estate)
Date: 10/17/13

MONSON

21 Bunyan Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $127,789
Buyer: USA VA
Seller: Pamela J. Manning
Date: 10/07/13

24 Robbins Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $214,014
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Robert J. St.John
Date: 10/17/13

PALMER

4253 Church St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $166,500
Buyer: Neal Patel
Seller: US Bank NA
Date: 10/09/13

12 Coache St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $119,900
Buyer: Louise M. Davis
Seller: Country Bank For Savings
Date: 10/17/13

23 King St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: David L. Sweetman
Seller: David L. Sweetman
Date: 10/18/13

1569 North Main St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $1,292,793
Buyer: Colonial Pacific Leasing
Seller: JBL RT
Date: 10/09/13

213 Old Warren Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $288,000
Buyer: Jessica Moran-Desautels
Seller: Theo Whitaker
Date: 10/11/13

SPRINGFIELD

50 Albee St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Ashley A. Nolette
Seller: Francis M. Merrigan
Date: 10/16/13

180 Balboa Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $142,796
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank NA
Seller: Francisco Torres
Date: 10/16/13

14 Barrington Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $222,200
Buyer: Sean O. Hall
Seller: Emeka R. Nwahiwe
Date: 10/07/13

159 Belvidere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Brenda Diaz
Seller: Hugh M. Goldrick
Date: 10/11/13

66 Benz St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $144,500
Buyer: Hanh Chanh
Seller: Sara Ashodian
Date: 10/07/13

125 Cherokee Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $152,577
Buyer: Clyde Newson
Seller: David L. Bienvenue
Date: 10/17/13

229 East St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: William Soto
Seller: Mary J. Dziedzic
Date: 10/11/13

257 Ellendale Circle
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $183,500
Buyer: Paul J. Mercieri
Seller: Michelle T. Scecina
Date: 10/10/13

120 Entrybrook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Schneider
Seller: Malcolm R. Schneider
Date: 10/15/13

122 Forest Hills Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: Juan F. Latorre
Seller: Eli S. Santana
Date: 10/09/13

39 Kenwood Park
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Estervina Melendez
Seller: Omega 3 LLC
Date: 10/09/13

27 Lakevilla  Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Heather M. Pietras-Gladu
Seller: Timothy E. Flynn
Date: 10/11/13

68 Margaret St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $1,770,000
Buyer: JTCB Properties LP
Seller: Colstar Partners LLC
Date: 10/16/13

251 Morton St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $180,151
Buyer: Beneficial MA Inc.
Seller: Latorya B. Adams
Date: 10/07/13

11 Riverview Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Michael F. Downey FT
Seller: Cecile M. Roche
Date: 10/18/13

151 Starling Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Tatsiana K. Danilovich
Seller: Jennifer Smith
Date: 10/18/13

441 Trafton Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $282,000
Buyer: Carl W. Reiner
Seller: Charles Marks
Date: 10/15/13

93 West Canton Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Holly A. Paquette
Seller: Mary L. Metivier
Date: 10/18/13

24 Wait St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Eliszer Soto
Seller: Terri L. Casiano
Date: 10/18/13

55 Westbrook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Richard Goodreau
Seller: Ryan M. St.Germain
Date: 10/18/13

15 Weymouth St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Margaret M. Amore
Seller: Edward W. Moran
Date: 10/18/13

27 Weymouth St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Michele V. Papageorge
Seller: Peppino M. Maruca
Date: 10/18/13

25 Wing St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $414,000
Buyer: Carol J. Samuda
Seller: Phuong H. Nguyen
Date: 10/18/13

SOUTHWICK

201 Klaus Anderson Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $324,500
Buyer: Wasserman Holdings LLC
Seller: Daniel M. O’Neill
Date: 10/11/13

13 Point Grove Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: David Y. Kirpichev
Seller: Peter C. Vanasse
Date: 10/16/13

WESTFIELD

40 Bristol St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $163,132
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Monica A. Rose
Date: 10/15/13

194 Dry Bridge Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: City Of Westfield
Seller: Arthur P. Cicerchia
Date: 10/09/13

41 Franklin St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Franklin Syed Sons Inc
Seller: Power Test Realty Co. LP
Date: 10/17/13

3 Michael Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Yuriy Koval
Seller: Abhishake Raina
Date: 10/07/13

115 Putnam Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Vitali Besedin
Seller: Mateychuk, Helen I. (Estate)
Date: 10/10/13

8 Sadie Ln
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $202,500
Buyer: Bobby J. Bertone
Seller: Gary E. Speanburg
Date: 10/18/13

75 Zephyr Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Carlie A. Green
Seller: Hooben, Jane (Estate)
Date: 10/07/13

WILBRAHAM

16 Briar Cliff Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Coyne
Seller: Leonard Viscito
Date: 10/11/13

Bridge St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Ronald N. Rauscher
Seller: Nelson, Constance M. (Estate)
Date: 10/18/13

27 Pomeroy St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Jeffrey D. Woodman
Seller: Tinkbuzz LLC
Date: 10/18/13

WEST SPRINGFIELD

30 Elmdale St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Guy Lariviere
Seller: Max S. Construction LLC
Date: 10/11/13

102 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Tom V. Hguyen
Seller: Douglas M. Henrichon
Date: 10/11/13

90 Laurence Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Michael W. Matroni
Seller: Lynn Lafrance
Date: 10/18/13

148 Lower Beverly Hills
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Joseph P. Saimeri
Seller: Joyce C. Saimeri
Date: 10/09/13

346 Morton St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $186,500
Buyer: Feodor Eni
Seller: Bodzioch, Ronald S. (Estate)
Date: 10/18/13

28 Warren St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Dominic Constanzi
Seller: Beverly Cloutier
Date: 10/08/13

2146 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $249,000
Buyer: Richard F. Seidell
Seller: Alice D. Gamelli
Date: 10/11/13

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $119,500
Buyer: Black Bear NT
Seller: Morton G. Harmatz
Date: 10/18/13

887 Belchertown Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $115,772
Buyer: Lesley A. Pinero
Seller: Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity
Date: 10/10/13

50 Cottage St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $308,000
Buyer: Bridget Dahill
Seller: Jeffrey K. Peski
Date: 10/18/13

46 Rosemary Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Gabriel H. Reif
Seller: Pamela S. Dejackome
Date: 10/18/13

1522 South East St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $347,500
Buyer: Stephen J. Cavanagh
Seller: Courtney P. Gordon
Date: 10/15/13

172 State St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $475,000
Buyer: Joshua Lewis
Seller: Caroline G. Arnold
Date: 10/08/13

BELCHERTOWN

191 East St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Ronald Toelken
Seller: Heather N. Palmateer
Date: 10/18/13

211 East St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Michael J. Matilainen
Seller: William P. Larner
Date: 10/18/13

21 Nathanial Way
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $344,000
Buyer: Patrick J. Mignault
Seller: Richard R. Kump
Date: 10/11/13

191 North St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $810,000
Buyer: Charles E. Molnar
Seller: Henry E. Whitlock
Date: 10/15/13

10 Old Farm Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Dudek
Seller: Nancy G. Croke

54 Pine St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Nicholas Southwick-Hall
Seller: Stephen Gharabegian
Date: 10/09/13

State St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: MC State LLC
Seller: Monson Savings Bank
Date: 10/18/13

EASTHAMPTON

14 Berkeley St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Lavallee
Seller: Gerald O. Ethier
Date: 10/08/13

13 Exeter St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $227,024
Buyer: Provident Fund Assocs. LP
Seller: Robert F. Herman
Date: 10/08/13

45 Franklin St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Lucretia A. Knapp
Seller: Strong  Ave.LLC
Date: 10/10/13

119 Holyoke St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Austin C. Rogers
Seller: K&A LLC
Date: 10/08/13

78 Plain St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Stephanie A. Subocz
Seller: Margaret J. Cernak
Date: 10/16/13

86 Williston  Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: Joanna B. Maxey
Seller: FNMA
Date: 10/11/13

GOSHEN

46 Pond Hill Road
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $277,500
Buyer: Howard J. Parad RET
Seller: Lannon, Roger W. (Estate)
Date: 10/10/13

GRANBY

134 Batchelor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $225,500
Buyer: Daniel M. Rheaume
Seller: Laramee, Richard J. (Estate)
Date: 10/07/13

HADLEY

4 Cemetery Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $318,000
Buyer: Melissa Gauthier
Seller: Andrea M. Stanley
Date: 10/07/13

HUNTINGTON

2 Knightville Dam Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: Aaren D. Hawley
Seller: Michael J. Kent
Date: 10/18/13

NORTHAMPTON

1 Amber Lane
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Emily Withenbury
Seller: W. M. Ryan
Date: 10/17/13

4 Beaver Brook Loop
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $145,500
Buyer: Kathleen A. Hutchins
Seller: Beaver Brook NT
Date: 10/09/13

150 Drury Lane
Northampton, MA 01027
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Alec Gross
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 10/15/13

23 Fair St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $372,045
Buyer: Deepika B. Shukla
Seller: Jeremy D. Ober
Date: 10/11/13

32 Gleason Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $285,250
Buyer: Marcia L. Wolff
Seller: Marti Newkirk
Date: 10/11/13

64 Hatfield St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Nelly Carmona
Seller: Kenneth C. Lebeau
Date: 10/11/13

33 Hawley St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $1,500,000
Buyer: Northampton Community for Arts
Seller: Hawley Street Funding TR
Date: 10/16/13

12 Hinckley St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Glenn Alper
Seller: Constantine, Stephen (Estate)
Date: 10/17/13

175 Jackson St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Karen S. Laverdiere
Seller: Alan Parlee
Date: 10/16/13

51 Lincoln  Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Chadd P. Meerbergen
Seller: James E. McKeever
Date: 10/07/13

331 Riverside Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: C. M. Teghtsoonian
Seller: James S. Page
Date: 10/18/13

462 Rocky Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Brian J. Crepeau
Seller: Scott D. Bertrand
Date: 10/08/13

SOUTH HADLEY

19 Charon Terrace
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $254,000
Buyer: Roy J. Sabourin
Seller: Sally J. Lemaire
Date: 10/15/13

617 Granby Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: Kari L. Scytkowski
Seller: Roy J. Sabourin
Date: 10/15/13

331 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: CIL Realty Of MA Inc.
Seller: Kenneth E. Guilbailt
Date: 10/11/13

308 North Main St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Stephen B. Jaszek
Seller: Dennis F.McLain
Date: 10/16/13

2 Riverlodge Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Amanda C. Stutman
Seller: Patrick J. Spring
Date: 10/11/13

25 Washington  Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Eric A. Hernandez
Seller: Lauren E. Cook
Date: 10/11/13

SOUTHAMPTON

18 Bissonnette Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Kenneth P. Brown
Seller: Steven Bennett
Date: 10/16/13

307 College Hwy.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $258,000
Buyer: Gregory L. Bennett
Seller: Donna M. Coleman
Date: 10/18/13

103 Glendale Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Michael Yan
Seller: Paul J. Martin
Date: 10/15/13

8 Jonathan Judd Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Pamela S. Dejackome
Seller: Ashtons Acquisitions LLC
Date: 10/18/13

17 Rattle Hill Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Robert Fondakowski
Seller: Tomothy R. Wakeling

92 Russellville Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Natalya Deven
Seller: Dorothy Kirby
Date: 10/11/13

4 Sara Lane
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: David Garstka Builders LLC
Date: 10/17/13

WARE

197 Fisherdick Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Cory J. Belczyk
Seller: Matthew Martin
Date: 10/10/13

WESTHAMPTON

134 Easthampton Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Thomas Martin
Seller: Clapp, Howard E. (Estate)
Date: 10/15/13

WILLIAMSBURG

5 Kellogg Road
Williamsburg, MA 01039
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Bryan T. Lashway
Seller: Poverty Mountain LLP
Date: 10/07/13

5 Pine St.
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Karen M. Theiling
Seller: Accent Bldg. & Remodelling LLC
Date: 10/11/13

57 South Main St.
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Poverty Mountain LLP
Seller: Bryan T. Lashway
Date: 10/07/13

Bankruptcies

By
Bankruptcies Departments

The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

Ackley, Richard B.
100 Tavistock St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Allan, Richard J.
74 Oregon St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Anderson, Kevin Condell
1642 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Aponte, Ricardo
4 Washington Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Aubrey, Debra L.
93 Grochmal Ave., Lot 1
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Barden, Linda Ann
a/k/a Noll, Linda Ann
111 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Bona, Michael J.
Gooley, Pamela J.
84 Washington Mountain Road
Lee, MA 01238
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Buck, Sharon
46 Cabot St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Burwell, Joseph V.
Burwell, Jacquelyn C.
155 Old Farm Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Byrne, Joanne Patricia
P.O. Box 150
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Caloon, Melissa A.
54 Riddell St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Cameron, Moraine
70 Bristol St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Carrasquillo, Milton P.
93 Woodmont St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Carter, Paul C.
394 Undermountain Road
Lenox, MA 01240
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Chamberlin, Christopher D.
P.O. Box 1327
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Cole, Ann M.
4 Rastallis St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Cole, Ryann S.
26 Fernwood Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Coleman, Cynthia M.
20 Mowry Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Danforth, Gary R.
127 Benz St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Delisle, Richard H.
Delisle, Theresa I.
1011 Oak St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Dembowski, Michael
Dembowski, Mary H.
PO Box 1566
Warren, MA 01083
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Dickerson, Theo N.
Holden-Dickerson, Almateen Deborah
North Brook Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

DiPaolo, Denise J.
46 Prospect St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Dunn, Sarah J.
a/k/a Ogonowski, Sarah J.
1038 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Dupiton, Monalisa
94 Mystery Lane
Phillipston, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/28/13

Flowers, Susan J.
48 Providence St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Gaetan, Maria D.
8 Grover St., Apt. 2
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Gaudet, Michael P.
Gaudet, Alexandra M.
a/k/a Placzek, Alexandra M.
77 Ride Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Giguere, Joseph P.
Giguere, Kelly L.
137A Boston Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Godbout, Nancy C.
376 North Main St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Grant, Timothy Brian
119 Hoe Shop Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Guilbert, Nancy A.
84 Gardens Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Hernandez, Daniel
Hernandez, Diane M.
163 Lakeview Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Holbrook, Robert E.
140 Chestnut St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Hoskey, Michael S.
Hoskey, Wendy L.
a/k/a Arnold, Wendy
239 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/18/13

Hubbard, Keith F.
Hubbard, Melissa M.
37 Athol Richmond Road
Royalston, MA 01368
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/29/13

Jaeger, Paul John
41 High St., 2nd Floor
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Johnson, David L.
Johnson, Kathleen
10 Freyer Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Kenneson, Jeremy V.
27 Mckinley Ave
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/18/13

Kenneson, Lynn A.
80 6th Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Kirkpatrick, Douglas M.
Kirkpatrick, Melinda A.
42 Champeaux Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Laboy, Lisa J.
43 Van Buren Ave., Apt. A
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Laliberte, Tania C.
90 Westwood Dr.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Lamontagne, Jerrid D.
68 Wheatland Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/19/13

Lara, Rosa
37 Randolph St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Leblanc, Richard E.
Leblanc, Robyn L.
708 Templeton Road
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Lester, Vera A.
a/k/a Mock, Vera
33 Euclid Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Little, Kerry A.
723 Holyoke Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Matos, Angel L.
a/k/a Matos Rosado, Angel L.
Colon, Bethzaida
235 Montgomery St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/16/13

McCoy, Ivy L.
780 Riverglade Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Morrison, Michael J.
Morrison, Christine M.
786 Wheelwright Road
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Murdock, James Louden
30 Central Blvd.
Bellingham, MA 02019-2725
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Nally, Jessica F.
80 Damon Road
Apt. 5110
Northampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Nunez, Jose L.
222 Norfolk St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

O’Donnell, Elizabeth-An
a/k/a Creanza, Elizabeth-An
113 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Ohlund, Susan
21 Simpson St.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Pease, Greg A.
Pease, JoAnne M.
34 Wayne St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Pike, Frederick B.
429 Main Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Placeres, Kim L.
a/k/a Perreault, Kim L.
a/k/a Dion, Kim L.
47 Kelso Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/18/13

Pobieglo, Stephannie
362 Allen Park Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Porter, William L.
Porter, Maryann E.
4 Franklin St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Prosperity-Magic, Casey A.
Prosperity-Magic, Hope A.
a/k/a Lowe, Hope E.
a/k/a Magic, Hope
PO Box 6283
Springfield, MA 01101
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Remillard, Ronald R.
27 Alhambra Circle North
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Rivera, Jim
43 Baldwin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Rivers, Louis J.
Rivers, Maureen C.
420 Boston Road West
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Rodriguez, Luis A.
26 Jefferson Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Rutkowski, Donna
22 Briere Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/24/13

Sadlowski, Karolyn E.
75 Commercial St.
Apartment A107
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/16/13

Salmon, Deborah
a/k/a Deines, Deborah
a/k/a Gordon, Deborah
40 April Lane
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/18/13

Sanchez, Emily
126 Union St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Schindler, Tammy H.
25 Saab Court
Apt. 1202
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Seymour, Cheryl Ann
77 Valley View Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/19/13

Sigda, Wendy A.
a/k/a Jones, Wendy A.
a/k/a Charbonneau, Wendy
16 Laurin Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/25/13

Tessier, David Roger
Tessier, Kathryn A.
18 Laurel St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Torres, Vilma I.
60 Pheasant Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Turner-Clarke, Mikaila A.
9 Mt. Jefferson Road
Hubbardston, MA 01452
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/23/13

Vega, Bernardo
71 School St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Vickers, Cynthia J.
3 Hickory Hill Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Wheeler Electrical
Wheeler, David K.
P.O. Box 725
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/17/13

Wiernasz, Laurie K.
51 Laurie Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/20/13

Willey, Eben C.
151 Granville Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Wilson, Phyllis E.
734 Belchertown Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/26/13

Zuraw, Joseph Paul
Zuraw, Celia Maria
76 South Maple St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/27/13

Doing Business as Certificates

By
DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of and November 2013.

AGAWAM

Ashford & Son
82 Stony Hill Road
Todd Ashford

Anderson Construction
63 Stewart Lane
Neil Anderson

Home Care Services
60 Walnut St.
Katherine Kennedy

Nataliya European Style Café
339 N. Westfield St.
Nataliya Belozerova

Personal Care Life Skills
270 Main St.
Donna Wagner

AMHERST

Amherst Live
125 Red Gate Lane
Oliver Broudy

Songs from Around the Corner & Stories from Around the World
30 Hickory Lane
Jon Ploof

The Loose Goose Café
233 North Pleasant St.
J.L. Gourmet Inc.

CHICOPEE

Building 54 Airsoft Arena
42 Buckly Boulevard
Robert Marco

Mya’s Restaurant
108 West St.
Aisha Cardona

Shell Food Mart
197 Grove St.
Sanjay Patel

HOLYOKE

CVS Pharmacy
250 Whiting Farm Road
Linda M. Cimbron

Heritage Transport
49 Laurel St.
Ronald Charelte

Luna Designs
402 Hillside Dr.
Laura Pantoja

Pro Spine Rehab
199 High St.
Michael Langlitz

The White Rose
284 High St.
Betty Kaplowitz

Whitley’s Fitness Center
384 High St.
Dwayne Whitley

NORTHAMPTON

Banana Watercolor
87 Water St.
Chris Gentes

Mill River Films
8 Nonotuck St.
Stan Freeman

Nohosoft
101 North Maple St.
Derek Peren

Pure Current Therapeutics & Lifestyle Alignment
72 Center St.
Alexa Williamson

Sharku Editing
12 Mary Jane Lane
Christine Craig

Snokon
119 Nonotuck St.
Andrew Wollner

PALMER

Alternative Marketing Concepts
12 Vernon St.
Walter Haggerty

Laub & Laub Handyman Services
2056 Palmer Road
Eric Laub

SPRINGFIELD

Angel’s Auto Repair
160 Magazine St.
Angel L. Alicea

Artifact, LLC
270 Albany St.
Jake T. Mazar

Awan Brothers
954 State St.
Wajid Mahmood

Boston Community Medical
3550 Main St.
Mary Glover

Café du Jour
1365 Main St.
Khaled M. Saleh

Calligraphy by Hatter
238 Maple St.
Hatter George

Cameron Construction
128 Tavistock St.
Brian M. Liquore

Dream Flower Variety
216 Hancock St.
Esmie Spalding

Dreamland Imports, LLC
1655 Boston Road
Israel Burgos, Jr.

E & C Handyman Service
87 Manhattan St.
Edgar H. Wilcox

Fight to Live
14 Embury St.
James E. Dixon

Graham Property Management
250 Albany St.
David D. Graham

Grez Automotive
604 Boston Road
Walter Joseph

Griffin Staffing Network
1145 Main St.
Nicole Griffin

Harmony Way
70 Mansfield St.
Michelle Croze

Hess
80 St. James Blvd.
David A. Klavonsvp

JB Auto Sales, LLC
48 Winter St.
William J. Gilligan

WESTFIELD

Giovanni’s
69 Franklin St.
Samuel Kim

The Seat Weaver
71 Elm St.
Alice Flyte

Yelena’s Baked Goods
94 George St.
Yelena Vdovichenko

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Advanced Printing & Copy
229 Memorial Ave.
Markath, Inc.

Fektion Nation
715 Main St.
Gabriel Martinez

KJ Woodworking
43 Skyline Dr.
Kevin J. Kras

Paul’s Roofing and Repair
107 Norman St.
Paul J. Morin

Wright Insurance Agency
1111 Elm St.
Lula Wright

Creating a Community

By
Cover Story
Honors College is Changing the Landscape at UMass Amherst

UMass senior and honors student Renee Barouxis

UMass senior and honors student Renee Barouxis

Dan Gordon says UMass Amherst has had an honors program since the early ’60s, and an honors college since 1999. What it didn’t have — at least to the degree that he and others would like — is what he called “an honors community.”
But now, it may have one of the best in the country.
The Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community (CHCRC), a $192 million, 517,637-square-foot complex across Commonwealth Avenue from the Mullins Center, opened its doors in August, and it’s already turning heads with a number of constituencies.
Indeed, the gleaming, seven-building campus within a campus is gaining the attention of other students at the university, high-school juniors and seniors weighing their options about where to pursue their undergraduate degrees, and other institutions looking to build an honors community of their own.
“I feel like a professional tour guide — that’s what I do,” said Gordon, interim dean of the Common Honors College, or the CHC, as it’s called, and a history professor, who told BusinessWest that he’s probably leading four or five visits a week.
There is plenty to show those who take the excursion — from the air-conditioned dorms to state-of-the-art classrooms; from the Roots Café, complete with a brick pizza oven, which is open 24/7, to the 200-seat, multi-function event hall. There’s even an art gallery, currently displaying photos from throughout the school’s 150-year history.
What’s much harder to show people, but is really the essence of the CHC, said Gordon, is that concept of community he mentioned. Tours don’t capture the honors students discussing leaders and intellectual innovators in a course called “Ideas that Changed the World.” Nor do they show the interaction between students and the two professors in residence at the CHCRC, or underclassmen pushing each other to reach higher.
Dan Gordon

Dan Gordon says the CHCRC is a “game changer” for the reputation of the honors college and UMass Amherst as a whole.

“We used to be an honors college with a list of academic requirements, but we really aspired to be an honors community, a living-and-learning community,” he explained. “We wanted a place where we can integrate what goes on in the student’s residence hall with their academic experience, where students could stay up late at night debating big ideas based on their readings in classes.
“It’s a dream come true,” he continued, “and a game changer for the reputation of the honors college and UMass Amherst as a whole.”
Indeed, it is this sense of community — as well as the amenities — that are making the Amherst campus more a “part of the mix,” or “part of the discussion,” when it comes to where top students will choose to pursue their degrees, said Wilmore Webley, an associate professor of Microbiology.
He said the CHCRC, as well as a number of other additions in recent years — from new sciences buildings to an integrated arts complex to a new academic facility taking shape in the center of the campus — have taken UMass from being a ‘safe’ or ‘fall-back’ school for students with other aspirations (something it was considered years ago) to being a school of choice.
Rebecca Spencer, an associate professor of Psychology in the school’s Neuroscience & Behavior Program, agreed, and said that at the same time, the new residential component is creating what she called “positive peer pressure among honors students.”
“You can already see it — people getting engaged in research early, getting engaged in the additional opportunities they have … and it becomes much more a lifestyle to be that high-achieving student here.”
The CHCRC, or at least its residential component, came a few years too late for Renee Barouxis, a political science major from Westfield who will graduate in May. But she said she can sense the feeling of community in this new campus, and believes it will be a tremendous asset for the university moving forward.
For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest joined the list of those taking a tour of the CHCRC. Those we talked with spoke enthusiastically about what’s been created on what used to be a parking lot and several tennis courts, and what it means for the school.

Grade Expectations
UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said creation of the CHCRC is a reflection of an ongoing trend at large public universities to create honors residential communities.
There are facilities at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and especially Arizona State University that helped inspire the campus at UMass and serve as models for what would eventually take shape here.
And by getting into the game comparatively late, he went on, the university benefited from observing what other schools had done and learning from mistakes they had made, and, in the end, created a facility worthy of the phrase ‘state of the art.’
The Amherst campus had what was becoming an urgent need for more residential facilities, said Subbaswamy, noting that overall enrollment is up 22% from a decade ago, but also a desire to create that campus within a campus.
Students mulling top private schools with $60,000 price tags now have another big reason to consider the state university’s flagship campus, which, for in-state students, costs just over $23,000 annually, he said, adding that many top private schools are currently challenged by endowments diminished significantly the Great Recession and the fact that more students need help paying for a college education today.

Rebecca Spencer and Wilmore Webley, associate professors at UMass

Rebecca Spencer and Wilmore Webley, associate professors at UMass, say the CHCRC will make the school more competitive in its quest for top students.

“This gives an option to high achievers who have traditionally looked at the private colleges, and it provides an alternative that is much more affordable,” he said. “Many of those private colleges cannot support as many students as they used to.”
Tracing the history of the honors college at UMass Amherst, Gordon said it began in 1960 as a program that made honors courses available not only in the arts and sciences, but professional schools as well. By the late ’70s, there were 400 students enrolled in the program, a number that continued to swell through the ’80s and ’90s.
In 1996, the Mass. Board of Higher Education proposed the concept of an honors college for the Commonwealth, and accepted a model proposed by UMass Amherst. Commonwealth College, as it was called then, welcomed its first class in 1999. The college had requirements to be met for entry, including a minimum grade point average and class rank, he explained, and students were required to take a specifed number of classes and complete a senior honors thesis. The college staged a number of special programs and lectures annually.
While the college’s enrollment continued to grow, Gordon continued, its facilities didn’t, at least not proportionately. He described its offices as a series of cubicles in Goodell Hall, which served as the school’s library before the current 27-story tower opened in the early ’70s.
“There wasn’t even a sign in front of the building that said ‘Commonwealth Honors College’ — it was very cramped, and we were sharing space with many other programs,” he told BusinessWest, adding that, while honors students were encouraged to attend lectures at Goodell, many found the long trek from dorms located in remote corners of the campus inconvenient.
The limitations posed by the honors college’s location and facilities drove home the need for what could truly be called an honors community that would include residence halls, said Gordon, adding that long-time Honors College Dean Priscilla Clarkson, who died just weeks before the CHCRC opened its doors, led the drive to make it reality.
There are now roughly 3,000 honors students at the university, and about half of them live at the CHCRC, which consists of an administration building and six residence halls, all named after trees: Birch, Elm, Linden, Maple, Oak, and Sycamore.
The honors college, strategically located only a few minutes from most classroom buildings, also features nine seminar-style classrooms, two faculty members in residence, the events hall, an art gallery, a café, and the Bloom Honors Advising Center, which helps students maximize the opportunities available to them and plan their academic paths, especially that year-long senior honors thesis that remains a prerequisite for graduation.
And while the CHCRC is somewhat separated from the rest of the campus, it is very much an inclusive, rather than exclusive, community, said Gordon, who repeatedly summoned the word “permeable” to describe it.
He noted that more than 20% of the classes held in its classrooms are for courses open to all students, the Roots Café is open to all members of the campus community, and a roadway through the honors complex connects it to other areas on campus, especially a residential community called Southwest.
Still, the honors college and its new residential community have become something to aspire to, he said, adding that this phrase applies to students already on campus who can transfer into the honors program, and high-school students as well.

Course of Action
Gordon said there is already some evidence that CHCRC is making a difference and that the Amherst campus is become more of a viable option for top students. And it comes in the form of an informal statistic of sorts called “the melt.”
That’s not an acronym, but rather a term used to describe the sum of those students who get accepted at a school, say they’re attending, but then ultimately go elsewhere.
“The residential community has ratcheted up our competitiveness,” said Gordon, adding that there was recognizably less melt this past spring and summer (he didn’t have exact numbers), and he believes the CHCRC has something to do with that.
“We haven’t seen a big difference, but we will soon,” he said, noting, as others did, that the residential honors community is just one of many factors putting UMass increasingly into that aforementioned mix, or discussion.
“UMass is no longer the ‘safe’ school that some people used to consider it,” said Webley. “Every year, we see the average SAT scores moving up and the number of incoming students increasing, and with a community like this one, it will only continue to increase, because we’ll be able to attract the kinds of students with high academic standing that we’ve always said we wanted to attract.
“With the university putting this kind of investment into an academic facility, it’s saying, ‘we’re serious about this; we’re not just talking about this,’” he went on. “And that gets me excited as a professor.”
Beyond making the school more competitive when it comes to attracting top students, however, the new residential campus has created an intriguing learning environment, said Spencer, returning to that notion of positive peer pressure among those living and learning at the CHCRC.
“It takes those good students and puts them together, and they seem to have very quickly caught on to challenging each other,” she explained. “They hear in the hallway that one student’s already started their research as a freshman, so then they all feel they need to get their research started early, which is great for us.
“That’s one thing that Harvard probably has always had,” she went on, “and now we have it as well.”
Barouxis told BusinessWest that the honors college created this sense of community at something called ‘honors RAPs’ (residential/academic programs) on designated floors in some of the dorms spread across campus, but the new honors complex takes it to a much higher level.
“There was a sense of positive competition on my floor,” she said, noting that it was occupied by fellow political science majors. “I think the honors college saw how effective that program was, and that gave them even more inspiration to go about a project like this.”
Barouxis, who interned with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal’s office last spring and later worked on Elizabeth Warren’s successful campaign for the Senate, said she believes the honors complex and its many programs will not only inspire competition within the walls of its residence halls, but also inspire other students not currently in the program to reach higher and be a part of that community.
Webley agreed. “I take both honors and non-honors students,” he noted, “and my non-honors students are being challenged by the honors students, and they’re working very hard to improve their GPAs, because they hear the honors students talking about their experiences there. It’s a very positive thing.”
Added Spencer, “I’ve always incentivized students about what honors can do for them — there are opportunities that the honors college gives students that the general population doesn’t get, such as smaller class sizes and the opportunity to apply for small research grants.
“There are a lot of incentives beyond just the buildings,” she went on. “But what the buildings do is give a face to it — it gives that real distinct character to the honors college that it didn’t have before.”

Class Act
As he talked with BusinessWest about the CHCRC, Gordon repeatedly pointed out the windows of his office to the surrounding dorms, dominated by glass, brick, and attractive landscaping.
He did so to reference everything from the two faculty apartments to the complex’s proximity to academic facilities, to the view to the Holyoke Range to the south and west.
But he reiterated many times that it isn’t the air conditioning, the view, or the pizza oven (or, at least, not only those things) that make this facility special.
Instead, it’s that sense of community that has historically been missing from the equation, but is now there in abundance at a facility that may be setting a new standard when it comes to honors colleges. n

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Community Profile

By
Community Profile Features
Culture, Education Boost Business in Williamstown

Carl and Marilyn Faulkner

Carl and Marilyn Faulkner have survived myriad setbacks in the tourism industry to remain a regional draw.

Carl Faulkner has never played professional baseball.
His name, however, is engraved inside a New York Yankees World Series ring on display in an antique curio cabinet in the great room of the Williams Inn, on the green in the heart of Williamstown.
Faulkner and his wife, Marilyn, have been the inn’s proprietors since 1979, and the ring is just one of many mementos that validate just how respected the the couple is by thousands of tourists who have visited the area, famous thespians who have performed in the Williamstown Theater Festival, and students and alumni of Williams College, located mere yards away.
“I’ve never been to a Yankee game, but for 30 years I knew George Steinbrenner because he used to come for his college reunion. He said he was fed up with Cooperstown and wanted the fans here to be able to see and touch a real ring,” Faulkner said, adding with a sly smile that he believes Steinbrenner added Faulkner’s name to the ring to deter him from selling it.
All who know Carl Faulkner know he would never do such a thing, but the dry humor and easy demeanor are among the many reasons he and Marilyn have attracted so many return guests, both celebs and regular folks, to this small town on Route 2, the famous Mohawk Trail.
Whether for a Williams College reunion or commencement, a play at the famous Williamstown Theater, a visit to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute — known affectionately as ‘the Clark’ — or an exhibit at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in nearby North Adams, Williamstown isn’t easy to get to, but legions of alumni, and fans of culture and natural beauty, think the town and its unique attributes are well worth the trip.
In fact, those making the trek from the Mohawk Trail, or the Mass Pike and Route 7 from the south, can currently see economic development in progress on the Williams campus and at the Clark.
James Kolesar, vice president for public affairs at Williams College for the past 29 years, told BusinessWest that a new, three-story Sawyer Library, now under construction, will replace the original, soon-to-be-demolished library, located about 50 yards away, making way for a formal quadrangle. Throw in the massive, three-year, $50 million renovation and expansion project at the Clark, which should be complete by the end of 2014, and there is a firm foundation for economic growth in Williamstown.
“Our academic reputation is a draw, certainly, no question about it,” said Kolesar, noting that Williams stacks up well in stature with Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and archrival Amherst College. “With our 1,000 employees and operating expenditures of more than $190 million, that’s $82 million in capital improvements from us, plus the Clark improvements.”
Williamstown is not without its issues, however. The Great Recession affected businesses here much the same as in other Western Mass. communities, and when Hurricane Irene struck in 2011, a popular mobile-home park was essentially wiped out, further shrinking an already-low inventory of affordable housing.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned new economic development and ongoing roadwork — courtesy of the federal stimulus program — will be positive for the town in the long run, but Faulkner calls the disruptions they cause in the meantime “medicine that has to be swallowed” (more on this later).
But the biggest challenge this town of 7,870 residents (2,000 of whom are Williams College students) faces, according to Town Manager Peter Fohlin, isn’t what one would expect — it’s a lack of land. Specifically, “we don’t have enough developable land for me to respond to inquires I get.”
The issue, he said, isn’t due to infrastructure or the mountainous terrain surrounding the town, but the fact that a collection of successful farms, producing mostly cattle for beef and not available for sale, comprises much of the usable land.
For this month’s Community Profile, BusinessWest ventured to the most northwestern point of the Commonwealth to learn more about the business life of Williamstown and how the community, even with the logistical challenges of its far-flung location and lack of buildable land, is making the most of its educational, cultural, and natural advantages.

Cultural Values
Like Carl Faulkner, Fohlin has his own sense of humor. He proudly states that Williamstown isn’t that remote, but, rather, “centrally located four hours from everywhere.”
Fohlin’s ability to make fun of himself in his municipal position — in which, he says, he’s often dodging verbal bullets — is on display each year for the Fourth of July parade.
“Instead of Peter being in front waving, he’s at the back behind the horses with a shovel and a broom,” said Marilyn Faulkner, laughing. “That’s the kind of guy he is.”
That upbeat attitude will help as Fohlin, the five-member select board, and other departments in town seek to replace its outdated high school and police and fire stations, among other issues. While citizens are “engaged in lively debate over priorities and affordability” when it comes to municipal needs, he said, Williamstown has a lot on its plate for a small community.

James Kolesar

James Kolesar says Williams Colleges provides an excellent educational and cultural anchor for business in Williamstown.

Also on that plate is the fate of those who used to live in the Spruces, a 100-acre planned mobile-home community. Fohlin said the park was a “showcase” when it was built in the 1950s. “It had a ferris wheel, a fountain, and a groundbreaking government structure in which the people in the park voted their own officials and managed their own rules,” a predecessor of the now-common ownership associations in many residential communities.
But the swift floodwaters from Irene severely damaged 160 of its 225 mobile homes; almost 5% of Williamstown’s non-student population was made homeless in a day. Fohlin said the remaining homes will ultimately be moved because they are in a flood plain, and the housing authority is working on a 40- to 60-unit project for those living temporarily with family or friends.
Kolesar said the loss of the park damaged the town’s socioeconomic diversity, which is already lacking for a combination of reasons, among them fewer jobs for young people, which keeps them from returning after high school or college graduation, as well as increasing real-estate costs.
The town does boast a significant percentage of second homeowners, and some, Faulkner said, are faces that might not be familiar, but as CEOs of major corporations or notable alumni, their names certainly are. “It’s such a desirable place to live, and that drives the property values up,” added Kolesar.

Road Well Traveled
The guest ledger at the Williams Inn, especially from Clark visitors, has been truncated for the past three years due to the massive expansion project. The final phase includes construction of a new visitor, exhibition, and conference center, as well as a comprehensive landscape plan for the 140-acre property. During this period, the Stone Hill Center on campus is housing some of the more famous works, but several others have been loaned out to other galleries across the nation for the duration of construction.
“It makes me cry,” Carl said, feigning the wipe of a tear from his cheek. “We are usually busy for lunch, but it’s been much less so over the past couple years, and with this most recent two-week closure, we had almost no one.”
But the Faulkners are no strangers to setbacks; it’s just part of the tourism industry. Hoteliers all their lives in New England, they suffered through the 1970s gas shortage, and 9-11 slowed all tourism in the U.S., but the tightening of the American and Canadian borders by Homeland Security has caused problems with bus tours, he said. Canadian bus-tour companies now encourage Americans to fly to Canada, skipping American border-security checks and, as a result, bypassing the Berkshires region, Williamstown businesses, and the Williams Inn.
Amid the recent Great Recession, visitorship was also down, and then the federal stimulus to create jobs offered many towns funds to improve roadways, which tore up Main Street and the green in front of the inn for almost two years. When Irene’s rains took out the Spruces, the Mohawk Trail — the most scenic route into town — was also massively damaged.
But the innkeepers remain upbeat, replacing those missing customers with tourists from Europe and Australia, and are focusing on the region’s residents with seasonal events like the German Oktoberfest they recently staged for hundreds of attendees over a two-week period. Next up is a month and a half of holiday programming, which has always proven popular.

Good Company
Fohlin and Kolesar both say Williamstown’s selling points reflect the American Dream — a town that is safe, has an excellent educational system (the Mt. Greylock Regional School District), and little traffic in the real sense of the word.
Certainly, Williams College remains one of the main draws in town, and Kolesar sees the institution as the main anchor of business in the Williamstown area — economically, culturally, and socially.
Yes, prospective students who appreciate city life might see four years in this remote area of the Northern Berkshires as a deal breaker. “But, for some students, it’s a plus,” said Kolesar. “By and large, students who end up coming here end up falling in love with the area, not just the college.”
Faulkner agrees. “The college is like having a good uncle in town,” he added. “And we do have a strong feeling that better days are ahead.”

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Court Dockets

By
Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Brixmor/IA Points West SC, LLC v. PCX Corp. and Steven Lee a/k/a Soo Bong Lee
Allegation: Breach of contract relating to lease for commercial property: $28,766.71
Filed: 9/26/13

Geeleher Enterprises Inc. v. RIV Construction Group and Home Depot, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of construction services rendered: $62,242.93
Filed: 10/4/13

U-Name It Self Storage, LLC v. Vertrolysis, LLC
Allegation: Breach of commercial lease for failure to pay rent: $36,476.93
Filed: 9/26/13

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Nancy and Robert Carrier v. Circle B Inc. and Phelan Engineering, LLC
Allegation: Improper construction design and failure to comply with building codes: $166,527.54
Filed: 10/4/13

NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT
Alexander and Fay Gaspari v. TommyCar Corp. d/b/a Country Nissan
Allegation: Breach of contract for failure to provide remote truck release and failure to compensate: $1,500.
Filed: 9/18/13

PeoplesBank v. Ryder Funeral Home
Allegation: Money owed on note and guaranties: $98,866.07
Filed: 9/5/13

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Hale Trailer Brake & Wheel Inc. v. MEF Transportation, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of rental equipment: $8,434.23
Filed: 9/23/13

J & E Roof Systems v. Craig McCarthy d/b/a Quality Renovations
Allegation:  Failure to pay and breach of construction agreement: $5,502
Filed: 10/3/13

Rose M. Groce v. F.L. Roberts & Co. Inc.
Allegation: Negligent maintenance of property causing slip and fall: $24,999.99
Filed: 10/7/13

Western Mass. Business Expo 2013

By
Features
A photographic look back at the Expo

IMG_2038The third annual Western Mass. Business Expo, produced by BusinessWest and again presented by Comcast Business, was staged Nov. 6 in downtown Springfield. More than 2,200 attendees passed through the doors at the MassMutual Center, and they had an opportunity to visit more than 120 exhibitor booths, take in a dozen educational seminars, and watch several special presentations on the Show Floor Theater. The day’s programming started with the ACCGS November breakfast, featuring Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Co. and the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream Program. Other highlights included the Professional Women’s Chamber November Luncheon featuring Kathrine Switzer, the first women to run in the Boston Marathon, as well as a Pitch Contest and Demo Day presented by Valley Venture Mentors, the day-capping Expo Social, and the announcement of the winner of the Greater Springfield Extreme Website Makeover contest.

AM7J1177AM7J1218AM7J1258Far left, Kate Campiti, associate publisher of BusinessWest, looks on as Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno welcomes the crowd and kicks off the Expo. Left, members of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield represented the nonprofit networking organization at the show. From left are Kristin Foley, senior employment coordinator at Human Resources Unlimited; Stephanie Killian, event coordinator/marketing assistant at Inspired Marketing; Ashley Clark, commercial services officer at Westfield Bank; Jill Monson, owner of Inspired Marketing; Claudine Gaj, owner of Magic Spoon Catering; and Jeremy Casey, assistant vice president/commercial services officer at Westfield Bank. Below left, Wendy Bryne, left, strategic sourcing manager at MGM Resorts International, speaks with Sophia Sarno, office manager and sales at WhiteStone Marketing Group, at the MGM booth.

AM7J1752AM7J1226AM7J1400More than 120 businesses and nonprofits exhibited at the Expo. Among those seeking the attention of attendees were (clockwise from far left): QualPrint in Pittsfield, represented by, from left, Karen Vosburgh, head estimator, Michael Lennon, account executive, and Audrey Procopio, director of Marketing and Human Resources; Comcast Business, represented by, from left, Adam Dubilo, sales leader, Tina Peel, business account executive, Tim O’Brien, client solutions engineer, Charlie Tzoumas, regional vice president, Stephanie Bedard, marketing communications and operations specialist; Jessie Horne, commercial technician, Tim Paige, business account executive, and Jody Hart, business account executive; and Bay Path College, represented by Sheryl Kosakowski, director of Graduate Admissions (left), and Heather Bushey, associate director of Graduate Admissions.

AM7J1419AM7J1362AM7J1350AM7J1320AM7J1358AM7J1448Left to Right from top left: Eric Harlow, broker relations manager with Health New England, speaks with Kyle Seesman, community relations at ProEx Physical Therapy, at the HNE booth; Jill Tower, associate at Johnson & Hill Staffing (left), and June Liberty, director of Operations for the company, meet Albert Rivers, employment specialist with the Department of Elder Affairs in Springfield; attorneys David McBride and Amelia Holstrom await visitors to the Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. booth; Representing the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst were, from left, Kyle Bate, academic advisor, Judith Miller, director of Undergraduate Online Programs, Jennifer Meunier, director of Business Development and Promotional Strategies for Professional Programs, and Trista Hevey, business development analyst; John Veit, marketing and recruiting coordinator with Meyers Brothers Kalicka, and Teresa Perkins, senior associate for the firm, talk with Susan Smith, director of Business Development for We Care Computers; Brendan Fontanello, promotions manager, and Christine Moauro, marketing and web advertising specialist, staff the abc40/FOX 6 Springfield booth.

AM7J1741SwitzerAM7J1267AM7J1210IMG_2117-7x5AM7J1522AM7J1291AM7J1135AM7J1238The Expo featured entertainment, informative seminars, special presentations, and other highlights that gave attendees plenty to see, learn, and do. Left to right from top left: Kirk Smith, CEO of the Greater Springfield YMCA, presents a seminar titled “The New Business of a Nonprofit”; Luncheon speaker Kathrine Switzer relates the story of how she was the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon; Hector Bauza, president of Bauza & Associates, presents a seminar titled “Effectively Reaching the Hispanic Community”; from left, panelists Audrey Morse Gasteier, deputy director of Policy and Research and director of Employer Policy at the Health Connector; Elin Gaynor, Esq., complaints and appeals manager at Health New England and leader of the company’s Affordable Care Act implementation team, and Marc Criscitelli, vice president at FieldEddy Insurance, lead a presentation titled “Understanding Obamacare”; Peter Ellis, creative director/vice president of DIF Design and organizer of the Springfield Extreme Website Makeover contest, presents a ceremonial $25,000 check to La Esperanza: The Hope of the Pioneer Valley Inc., an organization that provides comprehensive breast-health education and support services to Latina women in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee. Beside Ellis, from left, are Linda Cooper, a member of La Esperanza’s board of directors, Jeanette Rodríguez, the organization’s executive director, and Kate Campiti, associate publisher of BusinessWest; Alysia Cutting Cosby (above), a vocalist and actress from Dream Studios of Springfield, leads a group in a performance on the Show Floor Theater; John Maguire, president and CEO of Friendly’s Corp., talks about ongoing efforts to revitalize the company’s brand; Jim Koch, co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Co., the breakfast keynote speaker, uses some of his own product to gets his points across; Duane Cashin, president and CEO at Cashin & Co., presents a seminar titled “The Future of Sales.”

AM7J1699AM7J1705IMG_2098A special Pitch Contest & Demo Day showcased local entrepreneurs and those looking to get businesses off the ground. Left to right from far left: Dave (left) and Mike Mullen from KloudBook make their two-minute pitch. Bottom left: judge Ryan Walsh, operations manager from MassChallenge, makes some comments to one of the presenters. The other judges were Paul Peter Nicolai, principal of Nicolai Law Group P.C. (also pictured); Linda Peters, with the Isenberg School of Management at UMass; Stephen Davis, with the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation; and Joel Vengco, vice president and chief information officer, Information &  Technology, for Baystate Health. Above: the pitch contestants contestants included, from left, Daniel Ross of Mission Control, Mike Mullen from KloudBook, Kacey Clark from PeopleHedge, MJ Jang from Voncierge, Natasha Clark of Lioness magazine, Richard Stevens from Worksafe Technology, Diane Pearlman from Berkshire Film and Media Commission, Dan Koval from Worksafe Technology, Dede Wilson from Bakepedia, Marcie Muehlke from Celia Grace, Dave Mullen from Kloudbook, and Dino Larouche from KnowledgeWare21.

IMG_2129AM7J1883IMG_2132AM7J1893The Expo Social, the day-capping networking event, drew a large crowd. Left to right from far left: from MGM Resorts International, from left, Gerri Harris, director of Contract Administration, Frank Scharadin, executive director of Strategic Sourcing, Michelle Reichert, strategic sourcing manager, and Mark Stolarczyk, vice president of Global Procurement; from left, Kristi Reale, senior manager of Meyers Brothers Kalika, P.C.,Teresa Utt, senior account executive for Andrew Associates, and Joanne Haley, senior associate, and Anthony Gabinetti, senior manager, audit and accounting, both with Meyers Brothers Kalicka; from left, John Gormally, publisher of BusinessWest and owner of WGGB abc40/FOX 6 Springfield, Jeff Ciuffreda, president of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, John Garvey, president of Garvey Communication Associates and board member of Valley Venture Mentors, and Dawn Creighton, regional director of AIM; David Condon, owner of Northern Security Systems (left), and Jim White, co-owner of Go Graphix.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By
Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• Nov. 19: ACCGS Lunch with Governor Deval Patrick, 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Hosted by Springfield Marriott. Join us for lunch with the governor as he talks about his administration’s efforts to promote growth and opportunity in the Greater Springfield region. Cost: $50 for members, $60 for general admission. Package pricing is available; purchase a reservation to this event and the Nov. 21 Government Reception for just $80 for members, $120 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at  www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Nov. 21: ACCGS Government Reception, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Carriage House, Storrowton Tavern, West Springfield. A great opportunity to meet socially with your local, state, and federal officials. Sponsored by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, Baystate Health, Comcast, Western Mass. Electric Co., and United Personnel. Cost: $50 for members, $70 for general admission, including complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Package pricing is available; purchase a reservation to this event and the Nov. 19 ACCGS Lunch for just $80 for members, $120 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at  www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Dec. 4: ACCGS Business @ Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m. Hosted by the Colony Club, Springfield. Community Foundation of Western Mass. President Katie Allan Zobel will explore the value of philanthropy, report on the success of the inaugural Valley Gives, and provide a sneak peek at this year’s 12-12-13 event. Sponsored by Masiello Employment Services. Reservations are $20 for members, $30 for general admission, including complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres.  Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.
• Dec. 11: ACCGS Lunch ‘n’ Learn, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hosted by La Quinta Inns & Suites, 100 Congress St., Springfield. The program, “The Power of E-mail Marketing,” is a comprehensive look at best practices and winning strategies for getting an audience to open, read, and act on an email. Presented by Liz Provo, authorized local representative for Constant Contact. Reservations are $20 for members, $30 for generation admission, including networking time and a boxed lunch. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700

• Nov. 20: Chamber After 5, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Amherst Survival Center, 138 Sunderland Road, Amherst. Sponsored by SciDose LLC. Come explore the new Amherst Survival Center. Make new contacts, see old friends, eat, drink, and network. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.
• Dec. 11: Chamber After 5/Holiday Party, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by the Lord Jeffery Inn, 30 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. Sponsored by Amherst Laser & Skin Care. Make new contacts, see old friends, eat, drink, and network. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Nov. 22: CheckPoint 2013 Legislative Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Hosted by Wyckoff Country Club, Holyoke. Economic development and emerging technologies are the focus of this three-chamber legislative luncheon, with keynote speakers Sen. Gale Candaras and Rep. Joseph Wagner. Both serve in leadership positions on the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee that committee considers matters of commerce, casino gambling and gaming, the racing industry, industrial development, retention of science- and technology-intensive industries, innovation systems from research to development, networking, the Internet, data storage and access, communication, biotechnology, stem-cell research, medical technology, medical devices, and more. The mayors of Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield are invited guests. Cost: $35 for members, $45 for non-members. Sponsored by PeoplesBank, Holyoke Gas & Electric, Holyoke Medical Center, Westfield Bank, Chicopee Savings Bank, United Personnel, FieldEddy Insurance, Whalley Computer, and Dave’s Truck Repair.
• Dec. 5: Holiday Party, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Hosted by the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, 264 Exchange St., Chicopee. Free for all members.
• Dec. 7: New York Bus Trip. Bus leaves the chamber parking lot at 7 a.m. and returns at 9:30 p.m. Enjoy a day on your own in New York City. Cost: $48 per person. For more information, contact the chamber at (413) 594-2101.
• Dec. 9: Gail’s Retirement Party, 5:30 p.m. Hosted by Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. After years of hard work and dedication, it’s time for Gail Sherman, president of the Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, to take a permanent vacation. Join us as we offer her best wishes in her retirement. Cost: $25 per person.
• Dec. 18: December Salute Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m. Hosted by the Log Cabin, 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke. Cost: $20 for members, $26 for non-members.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376

• Nov. 20: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and sponsored by Marcotte Ford, 1025 Main St., Holyoke. Join us at the showroom for an evening of fun and networking, including a 50/50 raffle and door prizes. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for the public.
• Nov. 22: CheckPoint 2013 Legislative Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Hosted by Wyckoff Country Club, Holyoke. Economic development and emerging technologies are the focus of this three-chamber legislative luncheon, with keynote speakers Sen. Gale Candaras and Rep. Joseph Wagner. Both serve in leadership positions on the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee that committee considers matters of commerce, casino gambling and gaming, the racing industry, industrial development, retention of science- and technology-intensive industries, innovation systems from research to development, networking, the Internet, data storage and access, communication, biotechnology, stem-cell research, medical technology, medical devices, and more. The mayors of Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield are invited guests. Cost: $35 for members, $45 for non-members. Sponsored by PeoplesBank, Holyoke Gas & Electric, Holyoke Medical Center, Westfield Bank, Chicopee Savings Bank, United Personnel, FieldEddy Insurance, Whalley Computer, and Dave’s Truck Repair. To reserve tickets or for more information, contact the chamber at (413) 534-3376.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900

• Nov. 19: Art of Consulting Workshop, 8:30-10 a.m. Hosted by the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. Presenter Don Lesser has been a consultant and run a business that uses consultants for more than 30 years. He will share the guiding principles of consulting that sum up the lessons he has learned over the past three decades. For more information, contact the chamber at (413) 584-1900.
• Dec. 2: New Member Info Session, 12-1 p.m. This is a chance to tell us more about your business and how the chamber can best serve you, meet other new members, and learn how to make to the most of your chamber membership. A light lunch will be served. RSVP to (413) 584-1900 or [email protected].
• Dec. 4: Northampton Chamber Monthly Arrive@5, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Thornes Marketplace. Sponsored by Keiter Builders, Johnson & Hill Staffing, and United Bank. Arrive when you can, stay as long as you can for this casual mix and mingle with colleagues and friends. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.
• Dec. 17: 2013 December Incite Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m. Presenting speaker: Kathleen McCarthy, Smith College president. Series sponsor: United Personnel. Cost: $20 for members, $30 for non-members.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Nov. 22: CheckPoint 2013 Legislative Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Wyckoff Country Club, Holyoke. Economic development and emerging technologies are the focus of this three-chamber legislative luncheon, with keynote speakers Sen. Gale Candaras and Rep. Joseph Wagner. Both serve in leadership positions on the Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee that committee considers matters of commerce, casino gambling and gaming, the racing industry, industrial development, retention of science- and technology-intensive industries, innovation systems from research to development, networking, the Internet, data storage and access, communication, biotechnology, stem-cell research, medical technology, medical devices, and more. The mayors of Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield are invited guests. Cost: $35 for members, $45 for non-members. Sponsored by PeoplesBank, Holyoke Gas & Electric, Holyoke Medical Center, Westfield Bank, Chicopee Savings Bank, United Personnel, FieldEddy Insurance, Whalley Computer, Health New England, Milone & MacBroom, and Dave’s Truck Repair. RSVP by Nov. 20. For more information or to register for this luncheon, contact Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or [email protected].
• Dec. 2: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m. Hosted by Dunkin’ Donuts, 625 East Main St., in the Little River Plaza Center. Mayor Daniel Knapik would like your participation in the upcoming coffee hour by submitting any questions, concerns, or ideas for discussion. He will also provide updates and news about the city. To submit questions and to register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail [email protected]. The public is welcome to attend.
• Dec. 13: Holiday Breakfast 2013, 7:15-9 a.m. Hosted by Tekoa Country Club, 459 Russell Road, Westfield. Platinum Sponsor: Westfield State University. Silver Sponsor: Easthampton Savings Bank. More information to come on this annual event.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER
www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310

• Jan. 15: Table Top Expo. For more information, contact Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1310 or [email protected].

Margin Calls

By
Banking and Financial Services Sections
Hampden Bank Keeps Growing Amid Challenges

President and CEO Glenn Welch

President and CEO Glenn Welch says Hampden Bank will likely grow organically rather than through new branches.

The financial collapse of 2008 chased plenty of investors out of the investment markets and into the safety of their hometown banks, and Hampden Bank is no exception.
“Deposit growth has been really strong for several years running now,” said Glenn Welch, the bank’s president and CEO. “Part of that was people getting out of the stock market and putting their money here. Actually, we’re a little concerned about how to continue that growth as the stock market continues to go up and up. People who like to time the market and have cash here might dump it into the market at some point, although I think they’ll be a little more cautious than they were prior to the recession.”
Typically, the 2008 crisis and the Great Recession that followed didn’t hit community banks like it nailed national and international banks because they didn’t traffic in the sort of risky loan practices of their larger kin. But today, thanks in part to that influx of deposit cash Welch noted, banks of all kinds are struggling against tight margins; specifically, the interest they’re earning on loans is hovering way too close to what they’re paying out in deposit interest.
Hampden has countered that trend, Welch said, with the strong recent performance of its commercial-loan portfolio; in fact, the bank recorded loan growth of almost 22% in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, outpacing deposit growth of 9%. Overall, Hampden Bank boasts almost $700 million in assets and 111 employees spread across 10 branches in Springfield, Agawam, Longmeadow, West Springfield, and Wilbraham.
That wasn’t enough for a group of non-local shareholders who waged an unsuccessful proxy fight for more control over the bank’s dealings earlier this month. Texas-based Clover Partners, which owns about $7.8 million in Hampden Bancorp Inc. stock, accounting for about 8.1% of the company, had demanded seats on the board and has been pushing Hampden Bank to explore a sale or merger with another bank to increase earnings. In the end, stockholders rejected the bid and elected a bank-backed slate of directors.
But the ruckus highlighted the pressure banks today are under to achieve higher profitability. “We had a decent year,” Welch told BusinessWest, noting that Hampden Bank achieved a 10% higher net income in fiscal year 2013 than the year previous. “But we did so by restructuring,” which included eliminating seven leadership positions and consolidating some roles.
“As we worked on the budget, we saw a need to reduce expenses in an effort to become more profitable,” he said. “When you look at any bank’s quarterly earning announcements of late, you’ll see that everyone is talking about expense controls.”

Art of Commerce
Fortunately, a push to prioritize commercial lending has boosted the bank’s portfolio in that area.
“Our emphasis is on the commercial side,” Welch said, and for a logical reason. “Every business owner has personal needs, but not every person owns a business. We think we’ll get more market share from somebody when they own a business; those loans bring us better yields and higher balances, and then we work as a team with our retail people to cross-sell mortgages and consumer deposits.”
To draw accounts that will then become lifetime customers, however, requires a personal touch, and that’s where a community bank like Hampden excels, he added. “I think we compete well on the commercial side partly because of our local decision making. We get back to people quickly and respond to their needs in a timely manner, and people deal directly with the people who make decisions on their loans.”
The growth has been across the board, from construction loans to smaller deals. “We also work with other community banks and do participation loans; we may originate a loan too large for us to take on the entire loan, and we might want to spread out some of the exposure and sell a piece of it to like-minded community banks. They have also done the same with us. It’s a good way for community banks to work together for the community itself, and the borrowers deal with people who make decisions on a local basis.”
On the mortgage side, Hampden Bank has been selling the majority of the longer-term residential mortgages it originated because it doesn’t want the interest-rate risk on its books. Meanwhile, it has been touting the federal Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which helps underwater and near-underwater homeowners — those who purchased homes in the years immediately preceding a swift decline in housing values — to refinance their mortgages without worrying about loan-to-value ratio.
“If those people remain in their current mortgage but feel they can’t refinance, we participate in this program,” Welch said.
Overall, he added, the bank has emerged from the recession years with solid loan growth and some momentum heading into the future. As for its retail services, he said the bank is currently looking to redesign some of those offerings.
The overall strategy, he said, is to increase the bank’s profit margins not only through new business, but an internal belt-tightening strategy as well, which includes the payroll reductions he mentioned earlier and renegotiating contracts with certain outside vendors. “Margins are getting squeezed,” he said. “Over the last couple of months, some banks have closed some branches down.”
Hampden Bank has gone so far as to encourage budget-cutting ideas from employees, who can make suggestions to a cost-savings committee. “If it’s approved, we share a piece of the savings with them the first year,” Welch said. “It’s a good way to get people thinking about what they’d do, rather than just do things the way we’ve always done them.
“We had that program in place years ago, and it kind of disappeared for awhile,” he added. “Since we brought it back, we haven’t come up with huge cost savings yet, but a few things on the table might be pretty substantial.”

Community Ties
One area definitely not being squeezed is the bank’s charitable work, Welch said.
“We have two charitable foundations,” he explained.  One we set up when we turned 150 years old [in 2002], before we were a public institution, and we funded that with $1 million.”
Five years later, when the bank went public, some of the capital it raised was put into a second charitable foundation. “On average, those give away a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. At our last meeting, we gave away about $85,000.”
That number is dwarfed by around $300,000 in annual requests, reflecting the ongoing needs of area nonprofits in a post-recession economy. “They’re all great projects, but we can’t totally deplete the foundation. Most banks have foundations like this.”
Welch said the bank’s leadership has encouraged a culture of community involvement among employees, too.
“We do track that, and our people spend an incredible number of hours serving on various boards, and other people donate” to nonprofits, he said. “We have dress-down Fridays, where everyone contributes $2 per pay period for that, and we have a group of employees sit on a committee to determine how to allocate that money to people who have not gotten funding from the foundation. We’ll give away $500 to $1,000 to any one organization, and we do that with many organizations.”
As for future growth, Welch said Hampden Bank will likely focus in the short term on expanding organically, rather than broaden its physical footprint.
“As far as branch expansion, we don’t have plans for that right now, but should the right opportunity come along — maybe somebody’s divesting themselves of branches — we might consider that. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to be the fourth branch on four corners. And it’s very expensive to open up a branch from scratch and build up the deposit base until the branch pays for itself.”
In other words, Welch likes where his institution is positioned right now. As the bank’s tagline says, “brighter days begin right here,” and he’s hoping for more of those.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Start the Presses

By
Commercial Printing Sections
Commercial Printers Emerge Strong from Recession Years

Greg Desrosiers

Greg Desrosiers says adding digital services at Hadley has opened up significant opportunities with small-run projects.

While many industries are still feeling the aftereffects of the Great Recession, commercial printers are telling a different story.
“It’s been very strong,” said Greg Desrosiers, vice president of sales at Hadley Printing in Holyoke. “When the economy first started to tank, printers, as a whole, were among the first to feel it. We really felt it back in early 2009. We, along with many other printers, felt people were holding back on expenses they normally would not have held back on, because there was a lot of uncertainty.”
However, he told BusinessWest, “I can say all that is truly behind us. People are moving forward, and the past two years have been very, very strong from a production standpoint.”

TigerPress, which recently celebrated its 28th year in business and moved two years ago from Northampton to a larger facility in Easthampton, reports a similar surge in volume.
“We moved because we had expanded, and we had two different production facilities,” CEO Jennifer Shafii said. “We finally found a building where we could house both. It was very important to be under one roof.
“Our clients are kind of across the board,” she added. “Large clients, small clients — we take care of everyone. We do everything from offset-print magazines to business cards, to package printing on boxes and folded cartons. We have a very wide range of printing capabilities here. And it has been a good year. We’ve been growing steadily since our move to East Longmeadow.”
Stephen Lang, president of Curry Printing in West Springfield, has also enjoyed a strong year. He said his company has made a concerted effort to stay away from ‘commodity’ jobs — like business cards and postcards — that people can have produced just as easily on the Internet.

Jennifer Shafii

Jennifer Shafii says TigerPress has been a regional leader in environmentally friendly printing.

“We’re concentrating on specialized projects and tight-deadline projects, not commodity-type printing that’s more cheaply done if you’ve got the time to go online and do it. A lot of our work is time-sensitive and requires more human contact than just plugging things in online; that’s what’s keeping us busy.”
Curry has also thrived through diversity, as evidenced by its growing niche in large-format printing.
“The sign business is coming into its own. We’re doing more large-format digital stuff, more sign work, and more trade-show graphics,” said Lang. “A lot of times, someone going to a trade show not only needs cards but signage as well. We’ve become the one-stop shop, able to provide everything they need.”
Reflecting his store’s growth, Lang recently moved Curry from its longtime storefront on Elm Street to a larger facility on nearby Union Street, complete with 1,000 square feet of extra space and indoor bays to install vehicle graphics.
“We’ve always done vehicle graphics, but waiting for a nice day in New England is not always the best way to schedule an install,” he said with a laugh.
Steve Lang

Steve Lang says one key to success today is diversity of services, such as Curry’s niche in large-format printing.

The Internet has changed a print shop’s needs when it comes to visibility, he added. “When we first started, it was important to be on a main road and be easily found. But it has become less important with workflow the way it is now. A lot of people, instead of walking through the door, just upload their files.”

Lean and Green
Hadley Printing has changed with the times in some ways, too, said Desrosiers.
“We’re now closing in on our second year offering a digital print service — digital, short-run, high-end printing. If someone wants to do 1,000 postcards, instead of having to go on the printing press, we offer that digitally, and it’s a very economical avenue,” he explained. “It’s been a huge bonus for us and really opened a segment of business we struggled with for a long time — how do you fire up the printing press for 1,000 postcards?”
He noted that many clients would much rather order small runs of a product four times a year then order in bulk once a year, which clashed with Hadley’s focus on larger-run projects.
“It’s tough, because in printing, the commodities of scale are always there,” he said. “If you know you’re going to use 5,000 brochures in a year, it’s so much cheaper to just order 5,000 of them. But people fear something might change in the brochure — they might edit employee information, for example — so they feel more comfortable ordering in smaller batches. That’s where digital has its strengths. We’ve been marketing it just as we do offset printing, with all the same proofing and delivery to your door as with offset.”
While offset printing still represents 80% of Hadley’s business, Desrosiers said, he’s pleased that the company is now able to take on smaller jobs that don’t utilize offset technology. “One of the things printers struggle with is, how can you make it financially worth your while to produce 100 of this and 100 of that? But we’re doing it, and it’s opened up some really nice opportunities for us, some new avenues that were never there before.
“With the influx of digital printing,” he continued, “if someone only wants 25 of something, we can do it. Four years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do that; we only did jobs of 500 and up. I don’t have to say that anymore, which is nice.”
TigerPress, meanwhile, has increasingly come to the forefront as a ‘green’ printer, Shafii told BusinessWest. Her husband, Reza, the company’s president, recently updated his book on the subject, Go Green on Your Next Print, and they both “take pride in being eco-friendly and being environmentally conscious,” Jennifer said.
The changes TigerPress has implemented over the years range from chemical-free plates to vegetable-based inks.
“We were one of the first printers to be eco-friendly,” she said. “We were the leader of the pack for green printing. I think it’s important, both for both me personally — I have kids, and we should all be responsible for the environment in every industry — and our customers appreciate it too.”
Shafii said offset printing has been more amenable to eco-friendly practices than, say, digital printing. “A lot of people feel that digital printing is green, but it’s not that green. With offset printing, we use vegetable ink as our house stock. We use chemistry-free plating systems, so we’re not putting chemicals into the environment. With digital, you’re very limited in paper stock, and you have to buy the toner, which is not green.”
Shafii said customer response to the company’s green image has been heartening, “but a lot of our success is due to the quality of our products and the quality of our service. We get a lot of repeat business because people are happy with the service they get at TigerPress.”

In Demand
To keep customers happy, Lang said, today’s printers are expected to adhere to much more rigid time demands. Part of the change has to do with companies that set deadlines for marketing campaigns or other types of projects, and when different stages of the project fall behind the timeline, the printer is expected to make up the difference. He understands that business reality, and has marketed Curry as a shop that will take on time-crunched — even same-day — jobs.
“What happens is that, in the planning stage, maybe printing is the last thing that has to be done,” he said, citing the example of, say, a playbill that has to be produced before a show opens. “We’re used to the tight deadlines, the drop-dead deadlines. We’re down at the end of a lot of planning, and we usually have to pick up the slack and make sure it gets done.”
And there’s no shortage of work out there to get done, Desrosiers told BusinessWest.
“There’s this whole buzz out there — is printing dead? is printing going away? — because of the whole digital world,” he noted. “If anything, it’s starting to show its value as a whole other channel. It has its strengths, its worth, and its place.
“As an example of that,” he said, “you can send out these e-mail blasts, but e-mail is becoming such a congested channel. If you look at it as a highway, it’s a congested highway. Yes, you can send it out, and there are economies to it, but people are not opening it and reading it because they’re getting so much in their box. With printing, you can send something to someone they can hold and touch and read when they want. It has value. And the more and more congested that digital arena becomes, the more valuable print will become.”
And not just the print products people can produce at home or in their offices, he added.
“When people are doing something in print, they really do want it done well, because it’s representing their corporation,” Desrosiers said. “When you print something off a personal desktop printer, if it doesn’t have that crispness and sharpness and classiness you get from a commercial printer, and that can really do your business more harm than good.”
He compared that scenario to a non-mechanic who tries to fix his own car, insisting that, just as skilled mechanics will always be in demand, so will high-quality commercial-printing services.
Shafii agrees. “Because of the recession, a lot of printers went out of business, sadly for them,” she said, noting that there was a proliferation of shops over the past two decades — probably too many for the regional market to sustain. “But we’re still going strong, and we have a lot of repeat customers, because they like what we do.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Agenda

By
Agenda Departments

Pynchon Awards
Nov. 21: The Trustees of the Order of William Pynchon and the Advertising Club of Western Mass. will honor the recipients of the 2013 William Pynchon Award — Jean Caldwell, Jean Gailun, Joan Kagan, and Sirdeaner Walker — at Chez Josef in Agawam. The Order of William Pynchon was established in 1915 for the purpose of giving public recognition to citizens of the region who have rendered distinguished civic service, a noble legacy and honor the Ad Club is proud to bestow. Cocktails will be served from 6 p.m., with dinner and the awards program beginning at 7 p.m. The cost is $70 per person, and tables of 10 are available. RSVP by Nov. 14 by calling (413) 736-2582 or e-mailing [email protected], including any special dietary considerations and a listing of table guests who wish to be seated together (for parties of 10).

Government Reception
Nov. 21: The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield will stage its annual Government Reception at Storrowton Tavern from 5 to 7 p.m. Attendees can meet and talk with local, state, and federal officials. Tickets are $50 for members, $70 for general admission. For more information or to make reservations, visit www.myonlinechamber.com.

Retirement Party
Dec. 10: The Regional Employment Board of Hampden County will stage a retirement party for long-time executive director Bill Ward at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House in Holyoke. A cocktail hour will begin at 5 p.m., with dinner at 6:30. Tickets are $30 per person. For information or to order tickets, call Joanne Lyons at (413) 787-1552, or e-mail [email protected].

Reflections on ‘Glennfield’

By
Commercial Real Estate Sections
Developer Edwards Says Springfield Is Poised for Rebirth

Harrison Place

Glenn Edwards wants to attract UMass to the Harrison Place block by touting a ‘campus’ of services students might need.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Glenn Edwards is bullish on Springfield.
“I love Springfield,” the real-estate developer told BusinessWest from his New York office. “My friends call it Glennfield because I talk about it so much — how beautiful my buildings are and how great the city is, with its museums and symphony and everything else.”
The buildings he refers to comprise the Main Street block between Harrison Avenue and Falcon Drive, including Harrison Place, the Johnson’s Bookstore Building, the Northwestern Mutual Building, and several other properties, which he acquired between 2005 and 2007.
That was just before the Great Recession struck, but Edwards more than weathered that storm, reporting more lease activity in the block over the past year than he’s experienced in a long time — at a time when Springfield’s downtown is on the rise, buoyed not just by a probable $800 million casino development, but plenty of other commercial activity, and possibly plans for a UMass satellite campus.
“For me, it’s a freak of nature that it’s not successful on its own because of its location,” Edwards said of Springfield’s accessibility to Boston, New York, Hartford, and Albany. “Yes, it’s had hardships downtown, but so did Harlem, Tribeca, Brooklyn, the Back Bay, the Fens — so many places can identify.”
But Springfield has plenty going for it, Edwards said, and it’s difficult not to put the casino — which MGM Resorts International has proposed to build in the South End of the city — at the top of that list, especially now that voters in West Springfield and, shockingly, Palmer have rejected casino projects in their communities. That leaves Springfield with the only proposal standing in Western Mass. mere months before the state’s Gaming Commission makes its decisions on where to issue licenses for the gaming palaces.
“How can someone turn down a billion-dollar venture?” Edwards said of the stunning defeat of Mohegan Sun’s casino proposal for Palmer. “But I was telling everyone from day one that Springfield was the logical selection. The city is in such need of this investment.”
He compared the city’s central business district to an ocean where a whale — MGM — might splash down, raising all boats. With MGM buying up properties and business tenants facing lease expirations, Edwards hopes other landlords in Springfield get the benefit of their relocations, rather than, say, Longmeadow or Northampton.
“If we take 200,000 square feet of retail and office out of the market, it immediately changes the demand equation for space in the city, and that is favorable, no matter what MGM does,” he explained. “If MGM never builds a casino but takes 200,000 to 300,000 square feet out of the market, the market would benefit. There’s an oversupply of space right now because the population hasn’t been growing in Springfield for 30 years.”
His vision is for other property owners to absorb the displaced tenants and use the influx of capital to further improve their properties, creating more demand to do business downtown. He has already been busy making improvements to his Main Street buildings, but his sense of optimism certainly needs no polishing up.
“The only thing that could get me really shook up is if MGM is not selected by the Gaming Commission — and that’s certainly not guaranteed; there are no guarantees in life,” he said. “Other than that, my outlook is very, very positive.”

Schools of Thought
Edwards says he has long been optimistic about Springfield, well before MGM was a factor. “Over the last year, we’ve had more activity — renewals of major tenants, new prospects looking, and new leases signed — than in any other year. And this is before the demand changes with MGM taking 14 acres and all the tenants to be displaced.”
He says companies are starting to look to Springfield for its reasonable real-estate costs, compared to other cities, and noticing the improvements being made by city officials in the business improvement district, which include everything from better lighting to an increased police presence. “The streets are much safer because of what the BID and Mayor Sarno have done, and all those things are laying the groundwork for a UMass or an MGM to look at Springfield seriously and say, ‘we want to be a part of this.’”
UMass? Quite possibly. Edwards was referring to the state university system’s recent investigation into whether Springfield might one day house a satellite campus.
“We applied for the UMass location,” he told BusinessWest. “When we did, what we said was, ‘we have a bank, we have a Fedex, a sports bar, a convenience store, a coffee shop, we’ll have a sandwich shop soon.”
That eatery will replace a B’Shara’s restaurant that recently closed in the Market Place alley behind the row of Main Street buildings. “We’ve actually turned down a few prospects; we want someone who has a good vision for it. We’re not going to take the first person; we’ll wait. We turned down startups that didn’t have the capital or the knowhow.”
In the upper floors of his buildings, he added, are tenants ranging from insurance and financial-services firms to a chiropractor and a dental office. “We are like a little city by itself. We’re trying to get UMass to embrace the downtown campus, so we’re promoting the Market Place where the street is closed off. It’s immaculate and safe, and cameras and plantings from the BID have changed the whole feel of that.”
Edwards said UMass responded positively to his properties and mix of tenants, but the most important goal is simply for the university to locate somewhere downtown.
“It’s not in our control. We hope and pray they follow through and move downtown; that’s the primary goal, that we end up with UMass taking up to 50,000 square feet downtown, whether they do that in my building or in two or three buildings. That would be an ideal situation for the city, to have all those students and faculty and visitors walking around the city from building to building. We’ll take any piece of that, or no piece, but it’s just so important to keep building on this Knowledge Corridor as one component to whatever else is going on downtown, from Union Station to the Paramount to MGM and sports and concerts. We hope it comes to fruition.”
Edwards has experienced some setbacks, like when the Dennis Group, a major tenant in Harrison Place, moved out in 2009 and relocated to the nearby Fuller Block. “That was the only major loss we had, and we didn’t lose them to going out of business or relocating out of Springfield. We just couldn’t supply them with enough space.”
And he said he wanted Cambridge College, which moved into Tower Square earlier this year, to locate in one of his buildings. But he also believes that success for any downtown landlord is a positive for all property owners, because it helps build overall momentum.
“I want everyone to do well downtown. If they do well, we’re going to do well,” he told BusinessWest. “We thought we had a great location for Cambridge College. But from a psychological standpoint, I’m just thrilled that they have a campus downtown. They didn’t select me, but life goes on. I hope that UMass comes downtown, that Union Station is filled; these are all very favorable things.
“Really, what it comes down to is, people want to go to a place where something is going on; they want their customers to come to a place where something is going on,” he continued. “And Springfield has something going on right now. If I was the only one getting tenants, and no one else was getting any tenants, eventually all my tenants would leave. I can’t do this alone. Kudos to the mayor, the City Council, all the people who are working very hard to make this happen.”

Looking Up
Meanwhile, Edwards said he’s poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into his buildings, often in ways that aren’t immediately noticeable, from elevator improvements to security cameras to high-tech wiring. “Now we’ll be spending on cosmetic things, to attract new tenants and enhance the experience of existing tenants. And I’m just one landlord. We’re all going to do this.”
It has often been a challenge to draw tenants to a downtown characterized by a shrinking population and too many commercial vacancies, but the tide might be turning; out of 260,000 square feet in Edwards’ Springfield properties, only 75,000 remain untenanted, and he’s currently negotiating over 30,000 of it.
He laughed when he mentioned his business partner, who’s 89 years old. “It’s hard to get him excited, but he’s so excited about Springfield. He calls me every day, asking, ‘what’s happening today?’ There is an excitement around this city you wouldn’t believe.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

People on the Move

By
Departments People on the Move

The law firm Bulkley Richardson, with offices in Springfield, Boston, and Amherst, recently announced that 10 lawyers have been named to 2013 Massachusetts Super Lawyers, a list of top lawyers in the state, and that two lawyers were named to Rising Stars, a list of top up-and-coming lawyers. No more than 5% of the lawyers in Massachusetts are selected for the Super Lawyers list, and no more than 2.5% of the lawyers in the state are selected as Rising Stars. Both lists will be published in the 2013 New England Super Lawyers magazine. The following Bulkley Richardson lawyers were named Super Lawyers:

Francis Dibble Jr.

Francis Dibble Jr.

J. Patrick Kennedy

J. Patrick Kennedy

Mary Kennedy

Mary Kennedy

Kevin Maynard

Kevin Maynard

Kelly McCarthy

Kelly McCarthy

David Parke

David Parke

John Pucci

John Pucci

Donn Randall

Donn Randall

Ellen Randle

Ellen Randle

Ronald Weiss

Ronald Weiss

• Francis Dibble Jr., whose practice areas include business litigation, health law, and antitrust litigation;
• J. Patrick Kennedy, business litigation, banking, and intellectual property litigation;
• Mary Kennedy, employment and labor and schools and education;
• Kevin Maynard, business litigation, general litigation, and nonprofits;
• Kelly McCarthy, health law;
• David Parke, business/corporate law and mergers and acquisitions;
• John Pucci, criminal defense, white collar;
• Donn Randall, banking and business litigation;
• Ellen Randle, family law; and
• Ronald Weiss, mergers and acquisitions, closely held business, and estate planning and probate.
Named Rising Stars were:
• Matthew Kane
Matthew Kane

Matthew Kane

Kelly Koch

Kelly Koch

, banking, business litigation, and general litigation; and
• Kelly Koch, family law and estate planning and probate.
•••••






Kirk Smith

Kirk Smith

Kirk Smith, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, has been invited to join the Board of Directors for the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), an organization founded in 1927 as the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The human-relations organization is dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry, and racism in America. NCCJ promotes understanding and respect among all races, religions, and cultures through advocacy, conflict resolution, and education. Smith took on the role of President and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield in 2011. Among his many leadership roles in Western Mass., he serves on the board of directors for the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Committee for the Alliance of YMCAs of Massachusetts. He also serves as the head coach for the YMCA of Greater Springfield Buckeyes, a U16 AAU basketball team.
•••••
James Chadwell

James Chadwell

Antonio Dos Santos

Antonio Dos Santos

Crear, Chadwell & Dos Santos, P.C. recently announced that shareholder James Chadwell, Esq., and shareholder Antonio Dos Santos, Esq. have been selected as a 2013 Massachusetts Super Lawyer and Rising Star, respectively, and will appear in the 2013 New England Super Lawyers magazine. Each year, no more than 5% of the lawyers in the state are selected to receive the Super Lawyer honor, which recognizes attorneys who have distinguished themselves in their legal practice through a rigorous selection process and third-party validation of their professional accomplishments. Chadwell, who has received this honor four years in a row, focuses his practice on representing insurers, self-insurers, and employers in workers’ compensation requests. Dos Santos, who specializes in all facets of commercial real estate, commercial finance, and general business law, and represents many closely held businesses regarding entity formation, succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, and financing, has again been selected as a Massachusetts Rising Star for his work in real estate, the ninth year in a row. No more than 2.5% of lawyers in the state are named to the Rising Star list, and they must be nominated by other lawyers who have personally observed them in action, either as opposing counsel or co-counsel, or through other firsthand courtroom observation.
•••••
Easthampton Savings Bank announced that Randall Gage has been hired as the new Senior Vice President of Residential Lending. Gage has more than 20 years of banking experience. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and Special Assets Officer at United Bank. Gage’s lending background dates from his early career as a bank examiner in the Holyoke Field Office of the FDIC, and includes experience with all areas of residential lending at Hometown Bank, Apple Valley Bank, and finally New England Bank and United Bank. Gage obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester and his juris doctor degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law. He is a member of the Connecticut Bar Assoc. and the American Bar Assoc., and coaches youth soccer and basketball.
•••••
Hilton Hotels Corporation has honored Mary Annis, Guest Service Agent, Hampton Inn, Hadley, with the company’s national Spirit Award, designating Annis as a top performer within the Hilton family of hotels.
•••••
Jeannette Strange

Jeannette Strange

PeoplesBank has announced the appointment of Jeannette Strange as a Mortgage Consultant who will focus primarily on the communities of Chicopee, Holyoke, Springfield, South Hadley, and Ludlow. Strange, who is fluent in Spanish, will offer mortgage refinancing and special first-time homebuyers’ programs. She brings more than 10 years of mortgage and lending experience to her new position, and most recently served as a Senior Loan Associate at PeoplesBank and, prior to that, as a Loan Specialist. Strange is an active member of the Realtor Assoc. of the Pioneer Valley, BuyHolyokeNow, BuySpringfieldNow, and the Latino Chamber of Commerce.
•••••



Annie Lajoie

Annie Lajoie

The Northampton-based management-side only labor and employment law firm of Royal LLP recently welcomed Annie Lajoie to the firm. Lajoie will focus her practice in labor law and complex employment litigation, and counsel companies on the multitude of state and federal employment laws impacting them, including employment discrimination and harassment, wage and hour, disability and leave, workplace safety, OSHA, affirmative action, and contract negotiations. Her work will also includes drafting employee manuals, preparing non-disclosure, non-solicitation, and non-compete agreements, and conducting management training. Lajoie is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a graduate of Western New England University School of Law.
•••••
The Springfield-based regional law firm of Bacon Wilson, P.C. is pleased to announce that Kenneth J. Albano, Esq., has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Western Mass. Division of the March of Dimes. Albano is a shareholder and a member of the firm’s corporate, finance, and healthcare departments. He is also a member of the Mass. Municipal Law Association, and he currently serves as Town Counsel to the communities of Monson, Southwick, and Holland. Albano earned his BA from Providence College and his JD from Western New England University School of Law.
•••••
Springfield College recently named Brian Magoffin Director of Sports Communications. Magoffin is responsible for all aspects of media and sports information relating to the 26 intercollegiate men’s and women’s sports teams. His responsibilities include website maintenance and redesign, designing recruiting publications, updating and creating all social media elements involving Pride Athletics, and overseeing game-day functions. He has been a member of the athletics staff at the college since 2007, serving as the assistant director of sports communications, also serving as the interim director since July 2012. Magoffin earned a BS in Sport Management from Springfield College in 2005.

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook Departments

NUVO Announces Third-quarter Results
SPRINGFIELD — NUVO Bank & Trust Co. recently announced net income of $2,268,000, or 96 cents per basic share and 95 cents per fully diluted share, for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013, compared to $514,000, or 28 cents per basic and fully diluted share for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012. Net income was $100,000, or 4 cents per basic share and 3 cents per fully diluted share for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2013, compared to $207,000, or 11 cents per basic and fully diluted share for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2012. The bank’s book value per share increased from $4.72 per share at Dec. 31, 2012 to $5.17 per share at Sept. 30, 2013. The $107,000 decrease in net income from $207,000 for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2012 to $100,000 for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2013 primarily reflects the fact that the bank was fully taxable in the third quarter of 2013 with a tax provision of $67,000, while in the third quarter of 2012, the bank recognized a tax benefit of $53,000 when it was able to utilize a portion of its deferred tax benefit for federal tax purposes. Pre-tax income during the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2013 was $167,000, as compared to $154,000 for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2012. In addition, non-interest expense increased to $885,000 from $742,000, primarily due to increased personnel expense relating to new hires since Sept. 30, 2012 to service the bank’s growth. The $1,754,000 increase in net income, from $514,000 for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012 to $2,268,000 for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013, primarily reflects the bank’s recognition of its full $2,084,000 deferred tax asset during the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013 in view of its continuous quarterly profitability and its successful capital raise completed April 30, 2013. As a result, the net income-tax benefit for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013 was $1,869,000 compared to a net tax benefit of $101,000 for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012. Pre-tax income for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013 was $399,000, as compared to $413,000 for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012. In May 2012, the bank was paid off in full on one non-accrual loan including $87,000 of past-due interest, which is reflected in the pre-tax income for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012. The decrease in pre-tax income reflects an increase in non-interest expense to $2.7 million from $2.2 million, which was primarily due to an increase in personnel expense in the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013 related to new hires, performance bonuses, and expenses related to its equity incentive plan. Total assets at Sept. 30, 2013 were $133.1 million, compared to $110.9 million at Dec. 31, 2012, which is an increase of $22.2 million (20%). Cash and cash equivalents increased $3.1 million (39.8%) to $10.8 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $7.7 million at Dec. 31, 2012. Investment securities increased $2.2 million (50%) to $6.7 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $4.5 million at Dec. 31, 2012. Total loans increased $14.9 million (15.4%) to $111.6 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $96.7 million at Dec. 31, 2012. Deposits increased $14.2 million (14.3%) to $114.0 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $99.8 million at Dec. 31, 2012. Total borrowings increased to $4.0 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $2.0 million at Dec. 31, 2012. Stockholders’ equity increased $5.9 million (69.9%) to $14.5 million at Sept. 30, 2013, from $8.5 million at Dec. 31, 2012.

Big Y Completes Renovations at Two Stores
SPRINGFIELD — Big Y Foods Inc. announced the completion of renovations at two stores in Northern Berkshire County. Big Y recently invested more than $1.4 million in its stores at 45 Veterans Memorial Ave. in North Adams and at 1 Myrtle St. in Adams. Both stores have been serving their communities as Big Y supermarkets since 1984. This dual renovation effort began last September and included renovations in every department. In addition, in North Adams, customers have been enjoying the new pizza and sandwich shop along with many more meals to go, both hot and cold. There is a new café seating area along with a new organic section, expanded gluten-free foods, along with new areas in meat, seafood, delicatessen, fruits and vegetables, floral, dairy, olive bar, Stonewall Kitchen products, and in-store bakery, breads, and muffins. Lastly, new paint, fixtures, signage, aisle markers, and other equipment add to the new look of the market. The 27,786-square-foot Adams Big Y’s renovations include expanded deli, seafood, meat, bakery, and organic foods, along with extra space in produce to offer more fresh greens and organic items.

Skoler, Abbott & Presser Honored by Publication
SPRINGFIELD — Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., a Springfield-based labor and employment law firm with offices in Worcester and Meriden, Conn., has been awarded a Tier 1 Metropolitan ranking in the 2014 Edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” in five areas of practice: arbitration, employment law (management), labor law (management), litigation (labor), and employment and mediation. “We are so honored to be a part of this prestigious list of firms,” said Ralph Abbott Jr., partner and attorney. “Best Lawyers is well-respected by the legal community as a valuable resource of best-in-class practices, and recognition in five areas is quite an achievement for us.” The U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings are derived from a rigorous evaluation process consisting of collected client and lawyer evaluations, a peer review from leading attorneys in the firm’s field, and a review of additional information provided by law firms. A firm’s eligibility for a ranking is contingent on having at least one lawyer listed in the 19th edition of the Best Lawyers in America list for that particular location and specialty, which recognizes the top 4% of practicing attorneys in the U.S.

Greener Pastures

By
Banking and Financial Services Sections
PeoplesBank Honored for Efforts in Sustainability

Doug Bowen

Doug Bowen says environmental-sustainability efforts are part of PeoplesBank’s commitment to the community.

When PeoplesBank built its third environmentally friendly branch office earlier this year, it strove to give customers and employees a new look and feel, as well as make a strong statement about the company’s values.
The bank looked to high-tech giant Apple for inspiration in developing its open and relaxed interior design. The property features free electric-vehicle charging stations in the parking lot; energy-efficient lighting, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems; and more outdoor green space, as well as a water-runoff system to conserve water and hydrate plants.
All of this innovation came at a cost. Constructing a sustainable building like the new branch office at 300 King St. in Northampton costs between 10% and 15% more than it would to build a conventional structure without all those environmentally friendly features.
Doug Bowen, PeoplesBank president and CEO, admits that the bank may not see a return on the added investment through energy savings for “seven to eight years from now” at the earliest, but that timetable certainly isn‘t deterring him from such endeavors.
Indeed, what interests him most is that PeoplesBank continues to be an industry leader in developing sustainable branch offices, fostering an environmentally friendly corporate culture, and investing in projects that will be energy-efficient. This is a mission that PeoplesBank staked out a couple of years after Bowen took over the leadership of the bank in 2006, and it continues to find new ways to manifest itself.
“It’s a continuation of our commitment to the community,” he explained. “We don’t have shareholders, so our one goal is to make this a great place to live, work, and raise a family. We’re taking a leadership position in sustainability. It’s the right thing to do. That’s what guides us.”
On Oct. 21, PeoplesBank was recognized by the American Bankers Assoc. for its efforts in sustainability by being given the organization’s Community Commitment Award and its first-ever Sustainable Banking Award. The ACA honored PeoplesBank for building three Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) registered branch offices, and for financing more than $60 million in green-energy projects such as wind, hydroelectric, and solar power.
Bowen and PeoplesBank Senior Vice President Sheila King-Goodwin were on hand at the ACA’s annual convention in New Orleans to accept the award. More than 7,000 banks around the country were eligible for the honor.
“It was validating, primarily,” Bowen said of winning the award. “We know that we’re taking a position on environmental sustainability that’s unique to banks, but we’re still thrilled to be recognized nationally.”
King-Goodwin added that she was “humbled and honored that a local, mutually owned community bank” received the ABA award.
“The recognition amongst our peers was astonishing,”she said. “Sustainability fits with our core values. Many banks are divesting branches. We’re growing, so we wanted to do it in an environmentally responsible way.”

Sustaining Interest

LEED-certified branch

PeoplesBank has built three LEED-certified branch buildings as part of its green efforts.

Bowen, who started working at Holyoke-based PeoplesBank 38 years ago as a teller, came up with the idea to put an emphasis on sustainability about five years ago. An environmental committee formed within the company, and eventually it was decided that, as part of its strategic plan, the bank would build energy-efficient branches as it expanded its reach across the Pioneer Valley.
“It’s a crowded marketplace,” Bowen said. “You’re trying to differentiate yourself and provide value for your customers. This is one way to stand out.”
Bank officials were starting from scratch and sought advice and counsel from the Green Roundtable, a Boston-based nonprofit that offers education, policy, and technical assistance to companies and organizations looking to construct sustainable buildings.
“The Green Roundtable helped us when we built our first sustainable branch in Springfield,” said King-Goodwin. “We worked with them for about a year. Some aspects we were already putting into our buildings, such as energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. They helped us with things like reducing paved surfaces, how to better filtrate water, and how to dispose of and recycle building materials.”
The bank’s first sustainable office opened at 1051 St. James Ave. in Springfield in 2010. The office is LEED Silver-certified and was the first green building constructed in the city, which earned PeoplesBank Springfield’s GreenSeal. The following year, the bank opened a Gold-certified LEED office at 547 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield, also the first of its kind in the community.
Several environmentally friendly features were incorporated into the construction of the Northampton branch office, which was designed by EDM, an architectural firm based in Pittsfield.
The 3,425-square-foot branch was engineered by New England Engineering Corp. of Southborough and built by Marois Construction of South Hadley, and was constructed on a former Exxon gas station site using 12% recycled materials. More than 12% of construction materials were from the region, cutting down on transportation and other costs. Roughly 95% of demolition materials from the construction site were recycled.
On a recent Monday morning, light poured through the high glass ceilings into the bank’s interior. The building uses natural light for a good portion of the day, cutting down on energy costs. The main lobby has a large-screen high-definition television, a kiosk equipped with two iPads, a coffee bar, and comfortable chairs and couches.
Bowen said the bank’s customers have made the Northampton branch an immediate success.
“After being open four weeks, we were almost at $5 million in deposits,” he said. “Our goal is to have $5 million in deposits in the first year. We feel we’ve really been welcomed by the community and that we provide a valuable service.”
Environmentally friendly policies are now ingrained in the culture at PeoplesBank, said Bowen. The nine-member environmental committee plans and coordinates events such as an annual environmental fair. The committee also started working with Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) in 2012, and as a result stages a farmers’ market that sells local food and products at its Holyoke headquarters.
The environmental committee is also devising a plan for the bank to give each employee $1,000 toward the purchase of a hybrid vehicle.
Janice Mazzallo, senior vice president for Human Resources and head of the committee, believes this commitment on behalf of the environment makes PeoplesBank an attractive place to work.
“As we’ve brought in new employees, I’ve found that they want to work for an organization that cares about the environment,” she said. “We attract like-minded people, and it makes it easy to recruit new employees.”
Banking methods are also changing at PeoplesBank, and Bowen said the bank is implementing a plan to eventually become completely paper-free.
“We’ve reduced our use of paper dramatically,” he said. “All of our board meetings are done with iPads.”
According to Bowen, customers are also attracted to the bank’s commitment to the environment. He believes being located in Western Mass., where many residents share a concern for the environment, is a plus.
“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from customers,” he said. “Clearly there’s an appreciation of our efforts in this area.”
Over the years, PeoplesBank has helped fund environmentally friendly projects to the tune of $60 million. In 2009, the bank provided $2.5 million to Holyoke Gas & Electric to replace hydroelectric generators. In all, the institution has provided HG&E with $8.5 million in funding for hydroelectric projects.
John Majercak, director of the Center for EcoTechnology, has been working with PeoplesBank on environmental initiatives since 2009. The bank provided $25,000 to help convert the organization’s EcoBuilding Bargains into a high-efficiency building.
The store for recycled building materials and other products, located at 83 Warwick St. in Springfield, is 100 years old and needed a major overhaul. Majercak said the money helped with the installation of exterior insulated panels, an energy-efficient heating system, a new insulated roof, and solar panels.
“We’re using a lot less energy in a building that size,” he said. “We’ve seen an 88% reduction of electric and gas use in the building. It’s really energy-efficient.”
The Center for EcoTechnology and PeoplesBank have collaborated on a number of projects, including the organization’s Go Green program. PeoplesBank has been funding the program, which encourages households to help the environment through recycling, reducing waste, composting, saving energy, and using renewable energy, since it began in 2011.

Bottom Line
“If you look around the country and the world, you see larger companies doing a lot around sustainability,” Majercak told BusinessWest. “It’s much less common among smaller companies. PeoplesBank’s commitment to the environment is at a scale that puts them in a league of their own compared to other medium-sized companies.”
The bank has been in that league for some time now, and the recent honor from the American Bankers Assoc. provides more evidence that, while being ‘green’ isn’t an inexpensive proposition, as Bowen noted, it can bring a number of rewards.

Divorce in the Electronic Age

By
Law Sections
Modern Technology Results in a Number of Novel Legal Issues

By KATHERINE McCARTHY
There is no question that communication has become more convenient and accessible due to advancements in technology. Computers, mobile devices, and other types of electronics play a significant role in much of our daily lives. But the everyday use of such modern technology has resulted in many complex and novel legal issues.
This article will highlight the particular issues the use of electronics presents in family-law cases, and what every spouse anticipating or involved in a divorce proceeding should know.

Electronic Evidence
Technology has changed the face of traditional evidence. Common types of electronic evidence attorneys routinely come across in their practice include information obtained from social-media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube), global positioning system (GPS) tracking, text messaging, e-mail, blogging, files stored on a computer, and websites.
These types of electronic evidence are increasingly being introduced into family-law cases. For example, in the context of a highly contested divorce case, a family-law attorney is aware that a wealth of relevant information may be gleaned from the opposing party’s public Facebook or other social-media page. Too often, spouses do not realize the implications of posting comments and pictures on social-media sites. A spouse could easily damage his or her credibility in a divorce proceeding by posting questionable content on social media.
In a divorce case, custody is often an issue that is front and center. If, for example, a parent appears in pictures or makes comments on Facebook that suggest overindulgence in alcohol or other substances during his or her time with the parties’ child, this could negatively impact that parent’s request for custody. More generally, it is important to recognize that anything published on a social-networking site can resurface in litigation, and can have a negative impact on the parent or spouse’s credibility before the court.
Deleting a particular comment, message, or picture from a social-media site may not be enough. It is, perhaps, not surprising that technology exists that can resurrect information a person mistakenly believed had been successfully deleted from a website or computer hard drive. Similarly, changing one’s Facebook security settings to private is not enough because the user’s information could show up on the Facebook pages of those on their ‘friend’ list who have not made their pages private. Social-media account records can also be subpoenaed for use in a court proceeding.
Additionally, individuals should be aware that posting derogatory or negative comments about their spouse on a social-media site could have legal consequences. Such comments could result in an unnecessary defamation lawsuit, or, depending on the severity of the circumstances, a lawsuit for harassment or infliction of emotional distress.
The point here is that individuals involved in family-law disputes must be extremely careful before publishing anything on social media. As a best practice, spouses should refrain altogether from publishing any information about their pending case, their spouse, or anything else that could negatively affect his or her credibility before the court. If an individual has already posted such information, they should take the material down immediately to mitigate any potential repercussions that may follow.

Privacy Concerns
Another increasingly common issue in family-law cases concerns one spouse surreptitiously monitoring or spying on the other spouse. Emotions can run extremely high during a divorce, and some individuals have an inclination to spy on a spouse whom they suspect is behaving poorly, perhaps believing that discovered information may give the spying spouse an upper hand in a divorce. However, these individuals fail to recognize that their actions are oftentimes in violation of the law and could make them susceptible to serious ramifications.
It is true that privacy and wiretapping laws tend to vary from situation to situation. Even so, all too often spouses incorrectly assume that, because they are married, it is OK to log on to their spouse’s social-media and e-mail accounts or look at their spouse’s cell-phone content. It is important to understand what types of actions are potentially illegal.
In the electronic age, spying has become much more sophisticated. An increasing number of people are utilizing spyware technology to monitor their spouses’ online activity. Spyware is software that may be uploaded onto a computer, enabling a user to monitor and track the web activity of a specific person. Spyware software is available at retail stores and online for a modest cost. Once uploaded, the software is often difficult for the novice computer user to detect.
What many people do not know is that Massachusetts has adopted several protective privacy and wiretap laws that carry both civil and criminal penalties for violations. Uploading spyware software to a spouse’s computer, even if that computer is shared with the spouse, could run afoul of these laws. Further, just because one can purchase spyware online or at a retail store, that does not necessarily mean that the software may be legally used to monitor a spouse’s web or cell-phone activity. Illegally obtained evidence not only raises ethical considerations for the spying spouse’s attorney, but such evidence will likely be kept out of a court proceeding by a judge, rendering it useless.
Individuals also too often have the misconceived notion that it is permissible to secretly hack into their spouse’s e-mail, cell-phone and social-media accounts, and are surprised to hear that what they are doing could be illegal. A typical scenario a family-law attorney may encounter involves a client who feels strongly that, because they are still married, he or she is free to monitor the other spouse’s communications.
Similarly, because two spouses share a computer, one spouse may feel justified in monitoring the other spouse’s Internet activity. However, it is illegal under both Massachusetts and federal law to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. Individuals should be aware that logging onto their spouse’s online accounts and viewing his or her e-mails or messages without permission could subject the spying spouse to criminal penalties. This is especially true if the spied-on spouse maintains exclusive control over the device or if the account is password-protected. Further, as a general rule, secret video or voice recording of another person, even a household member, is illegal.
The current state of the law regarding unauthorized access to a spouse’s cell phone is less clear. Courts have recognized a diminished expectation of privacy between spouses, which means that what may be deemed an offensive invasion of privacy between non-married persons may not be recognized as such between spouses. But it is important that individuals are aware that the trend in Massachusetts courts is toward protecting the privacy of individuals, including individuals within a marriage. Hence, just because a spouse guesses or secretly learns the password to the other spouse’s cell phone does not mean that it is permissible to view its contents. Additionally, cell phones, particularly smartphones, are similar to computer systems. Courts could interpret the unauthorized access of a cell phone as falling within the purview of the law prohibiting the unauthorized access to a computer system, resulting in possible criminal liability.
Very often, information obtained by a spying spouse involves the other spouse’s extramarital affair. However, proof of adultery in and of itself does not hold much weight in a contemporary divorce action in Massachusetts. Hence, the risks simply outweigh the benefits in most cases.

What Everyone Should Know
Family-law cases are emotionally charged proceeding. Rational people may display seemingly irrational behavior in the midst of a highly contested divorce. That is why it is important for everyone who is party to a divorce to have a clear understanding from the outset of proper use of electronics and social media. Information about a pending divorce or child-custody issues simply should not appear on social-media accounts. Individuals should also avoid posting anything that may be harmful to their case.
And no matter how tempting it may be to secretly monitor a spouse’s e-mail, social-media accounts and cell-phone contents, doing so could expose the spying spouse to criminal or civil penalties. Anyone considering taking any such action should refrain from doing so and consult a qualified divorce attorney.

Katherine McCarthy works at Robinson Donovan, P.C., where she concentrates on domestic relations. She received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in May; (413) 732-2301; kmccarthy@robinson-donovan

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook Departments

MassMutual Opens Phoenix Location
SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual Financial Group recently opened a 60,000-square-foot facility in Phoenix, Ariz., giving the company its first presence in the western part of the country. In a statement, the company said it plans to employ about 400 people at the Arizona location by 2014. The Phoenix location enables MassMutual to diversify its footprint, the statement said, “allowing for enhanced for enhanced service to all U.S. policy owners and customers while further mitigating operational risks.”

Hampshire Orthopedics Joins Cooley Dickinson Practice Associates
NORTHAMPTON — Hampshire Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, also known as Hamp Ortho and HOSM, joined Cooley Dickinson Practice Associates (CDPA) last month. Joining CDPA from Hamp Ortho are 39 employees, including four orthopedic surgeons, two physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians (physiatrists), two physical therapists, and an occupational hand therapist. As the oldest provider of orthopedic care in Hampshire County, Hamp Ortho has provided treatment of musculoskeletal problems — including management of spine disorders, primary and complex joint reconstruction, trauma, sports medicine, hand and arthritis care, and pain management — since 1952. The physicians of Hampshire Orthopedics are also on the consulting staff at the student health service department of the University of Massachusetts and have served as the orthopedic team physicians for many years. “One of the first priorities now that Hamp Ortho and CDPA are joined is to expand access and services to better meet the needs of patients who need orthopedic and rehabilitative care,” said Frank Dingler, executive director of CDPA. Dr. Jonathan Fallon, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician, added that “becoming part of CDPA will immediately allow the doctors at Hampshire Orthopedics and Sports Medicine to more effectively coordinate patient care and better communicate with primary-care providers.”

Money Magazine Touts Service at Citizens Bank
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Money magazine recently selected Citizens Bank as one of nation’s best banks in its 2013 list of “The Best Banks in America.” Citizens Bank was recognized for its level of customer convenience available through its 24/7 customer contact center, its banking specialists available online via instant messaging, and its network of approximately 1,400 branches and 3,600 ATMs. The best-banks feature is in the November issue of Money. “Our customers typically choose to bank with us because of how easy it is to access their accounts at their local branch, through our 24/7 customer service center, at an ATM, online, or on their mobile phones,” said Brad Conner, vice chairman of Consumer Banking for RBS Citizens Financial Group. “We are committed to making banking simple, clear, and personal, and we are proud to be recognized by Money magazine as one of the best banks in America.” In addition to a “robust presence” defined by its many branches and ATMs, Money recognized Citizens Bank’s extended branch hours that include seven-day-a-week supermarket branches.b

Briefcase

By
Briefcase Departments

State Moves Forward with Interstate 91 Study
SPRINGFIELD — State officials have chosen a consultant to study possible alternative alignments for Interstate 91 through Springfield, while highway officials proceed with a plan to replace decks on a deteriorating elevated portion of the highway in the city. The state Department of Transportation has selected the Cheshire, Conn.-based consulting firm Milone & MacBroom to evaluate alternatives for a section of Interstate 91, including possibly depressing the highway section to ground level or below ground. At the same time, the state highway division will be moving forward with a plan to replace decks on the crumbling Interstate 91 viaduct. Milone & MacBroom will study a section of Interstate 91 south of the most elevated portion of the viaduct near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At the same time, the state highway division will develop a plan for replacing the decks of the existing Interstate 91 viaduct, which raised safety concerns after a chunk of concrete fell from the section in April. The activity comes amid plans by MGM Resorts International to build $800 million casino in the South End of Springfield that would front Interstate 91 and would draw most of its traffic from the highway. MGM is competing with Mohegan Sun Massachusetts in Palmer for the single casino license to be awarded in Western Mass. The state is starting contract negotiations with Milone & MacBroom with a goal of starting work in January. The firm will coordinate with the state highway division as it moves forward with its proposal to replace the decks on the viaduct.

U.S. Manufacturing Gains 2,000 Jobs in September
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The latest monthly U.S. jobs report shows America’s manufacturing sector gained 2,000 jobs in September. However, for all of 2013, the U.S. has gained only 12,000 manufacturing jobs. Commented Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), “in manufacturing, we’ve been treading water for nearly 18 months now. Yet no one in Washington seems to care. The September jobs report shows that private-sector job growth, and manufacturing in particular, is too weak to put the U.S. on a sound fiscal footing or to get the middle class back on track. It’s time for Congress to stop manufacturing crises and deal with our real manufacturing crisis. Washington needs to put into place policies that will get America back to work. The neglect is glaring: 70,000 structurally deficient bridges. Math and science achievement down compared to other industrialized nations. And our economic competitors are not standing still. This is no way to run a country or to support the private sector’s efforts to create jobs. And here’s the kicker: the October numbers could be even worse.” President Obama set a goal of creating 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. To follow the president’s progress, the AAM continually updates a jobs tracker based on monthly jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Student Debt Load Rising in Bay State
BOSTON — More students in Massachusetts public universities and colleges are incurring larger amounts of debt to finance their educations, the state higher education commissioner told lawmakers recently. “Let me sound the alarm on this issue,” Commissioner Richard Freeland said at the fourth in a series of hearings on college debt. “Make no mistake: the burden of student debt could derail us from achieving our goals.” The average debt for graduates of the University of Massachusetts system, other state universities, and community colleges increased 27% from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2011, the last year for which data are available, Freeland said. And the percentage of graduates who accumulated debt rose across all levels, including a high of 64.8% at the state universities in 2011. The average graduate in the UMass system left with $26,844 in debt in 2011, an increase of $5,525 over three years earlier. At other state universities, the average figure was $22,362, a jump of $4,822. For graduates of community colleges, the average debt in 2011 ranged from $7,229 for graduates with associate degrees to $4,655 for graduates with one-year certificates or less. The percentage of graduates who left the UMass system in debt rose to 61.4% in 2011 from 57.9% in 2008. The biggest increase in public institutions, from 31.1% to 48.6%, was registered by community-college graduates with one- or two-year certificates.

Savage Arms, Cirtec Medical Win Grants
WESTFIELD, EAST LONGMEADOW — Firearms manufacturer Savage Arms in Westfield and Cirtec Medical in East Longmeadow, a maker of medical devices, have been awarded grants from the state’s Workforce Training Fund to expand their workforces and train employees in lean-manufacturing processes. Savage Arms was awarded $179,600, which will be used to train 400 employees, and 48 new jobs are expected to be created. Cirtec Medical was awarded $106,805, which will be used to train 63 employees, and three new jobs are expected to be created as a result of training. Lean manufacturing emphasizes on avoiding waste and improving quality, and is based on the Toyota manufacturing methods. The two awards are part of a package of 37 grants totaling $2.8 million. All told, the grants fund 3,106 current and newly hired employees. Savage Arms represents one-third of the total market for traditional firearms, with a particular focus on bolt-action rifles. Cirtec Medical is a contract design, development, and manufacturing firm focusing on medical devices, with a particular strength in active and passive implantable devices and minimally invasive systems.

State Increases Incentives for Hiring Veterans, Long-term Unemployed
BOSTON — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced that it has more than doubled cash grants available to employers hiring Massachusetts residents who have been unemployed for six months or more, or Massachusetts veterans (regardless of length of unemployment). Increased grant funding is available through the state’s Hiring Incentive Training Grant (HITG), a program of the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund. Any for-profit company or nonprofit organization that contributes to the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund, a state fund enacted in 1998, is encouraged to apply. Eligible employers may now apply for grants of $5,000 for each new hire who meets the HITG program requirements. Employers may receive up to $75,000 each calendar year. Upon approval, payment will be available to the employer once the new hire has retained employment for at least 120 days. A copy of the Hiring Incentive Training Grant application, eligibility requirements, frequently asked questions, and other relevant materials are available at EOLWD’s website, www.mass.gov/hiringgrant. Grant awards are subject to funding availability, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Retailers Cautious About Seasonal Hiring Boosts
WASHINGTON — Facing economic wariness and wavering consumer confidence, retailers are approaching their holiday hiring with caution, forecasters say. Research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said it expects hiring will, at best, match the 752,000 retail jobs that were added last year between October and December, and the National Retail Federation projects retailers will add between 720,000 and 780,000 seasonal workers this year. Retailers are making their staffing decisions against a backdrop of uncertainty caused by tepid economic growth and, more recently, standoffs in Congress over funding the federal government and the debt limit. Toys R Us plans to hire 45,000 workers, about the same as it hired last year. Kohl’s is poised to hire 50,000 workers, also consistent with its 2012 hiring. Macy’s is set to add 83,000 seasonal workers, a slight increase from the 80,000 brought on the previous year. Wal-Mart says it will hire 55,000 holiday workers, a 10% increase from 2012. It will also transition an additional 35,000 temporary workers to part-time positions and yet another 35,000 part-time workers to full-time positions. Meanwhile, Target plans to pare back its seasonal staffing, expecting to add 70,000 workers in 2013 compared with 88,000 last year. The company said it will focus on giving existing staffers the chance to work extra hours. Foot traffic to bricks-and-mortar stores is taking a hit as more consumers buy online. That growth is reflected in Amazon.com’s hiring plans; the online giant expects to create 70,000 seasonal positions, a 40% increase from last year. While holiday retail hiring is expected to be somewhat flat, sales are expected to inch up. The National Retail Federation forecasts a 3.9% increase to $602.1 billion, an improvement over last year’s sales growth of 3.5% over 2011.

WSU President Files Suit Against Several Parties
WESTFIELD — Evan Dobelle, the embattled president of Westfield State University who was placed on paid leave of absence last month amid investigations of alleged improper spending and violations of university policies regarding travel and credit, has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Springfield against a number of parties directly or indirectly related to the action taken against him. Dobelle, who is suing the university, Higher Education Commissioner Richard Freeland, three trustees, the school’s accounting firm, a Boston law firm, and the university’s lawyers, is seeking an unspecified amount of money and legal fees. He claims that Freeland and the trustees are waging a “guerilla war for control of the university,” and that Freeland used extortion-like tactics in an attempt to force Dobelle from office. The suit also alleges that trustees Chairman John Flynn III conducted a “one-man investigation” into Dobelle’s travel between 2008 and 2013. Also named in the suit are trustees Kevin Queenin and Elizabeth Scheibel, the former Northwestern district attorney; the Braintree-based accounting firm O’Connell and Drew; Rudin and Rudman, a Boston law firm; and James Cox, lawyer for the Board of Trustees. The trustees voted on Oct. 15 to suspend Dobelle, following a 10-hou, closed-door meeting the president. The board also hired a Boston-based law firm to investigate Dobelle’s travel and spending, and report back by Nov. 25.

Net Results?

By
Accounting and Tax Planning Sections
Medicare Tax Implications of the Affordable Care Act

By MICHAEL J. ROWE, CPA

Michael J. Rowe, CPA

Michael J. Rowe, CPA

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law in 2010, made two significant changes to Medicare tax for high-income taxpayers for years beginning after 2012. This article will provide a broad overview of the changes, explain how to reflect the additional taxes on an individual’s personal tax returns, and provide possible strategies to mitigate these taxes.

New 3.8% Surtax on Net Investment Income
Before the ACA, there was no Medicare tax on unearned income. The ACA imposes an additional Medicare tax of 3.8% of the lesser of: (1) net investment income, or (2) the excess of modified adjusted gross income over a threshold amount ($250,000 for joint returns or surviving spouses, $125,000 for a married individual filing a separate return, or $200,000 for all other taxpayers).
The threshold amounts are not indexed for inflation, so as time passes, more taxpayers will be subject to the tax.
Modified adjusted gross income is adjusted gross income increased by any amount excluded from income as foreign earned income, net of deductions and exclusions disallowed with respect to the foreign earned income. As a practical matter, most U.S. residents do not have foreign earned income, so modified adjusted gross income would be the same as adjusted gross income.
Net investment income is the excess of the following items over deductions allocable to those items:
• Gross income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, and rents, unless they are derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business to which the 3.8% surtax does not apply;
• Other gross income derived from a trade or business to which the 3.8% surtax does apply; and
• Net gain attributable to the disposition of property other than property held in a trade or business to which the 3.8% surtax does not apply.
Gross income does not include items that are not included in gross income for income-tax purposes.
The 3.8% surtax applies to a trade or business only if it is considered a passive activity or if it is a trade or business of trading in financial instruments or commodities.
The additional Medicare tax is considered a tax for estimated payment purposes. An individual cannot request additional withholding specifically for the additional Medicare tax, but may increase his or her overall withholding using Form W-4.
The 3.8% surtax is calculated on Form 8960, which will be included in the individual’s tax return.
There are a few potential strategies to minimize additional net investment income in the current year:
• Consider taking taking capital losses to offset capital gains;
• Consider the installment method of reporting gains, if possible;
• If salary and other non-investment earnings plus net investment income approximate the threshold above, try to avoid, if feasible, additional income before year-end. This will defer, and possibly eliminate, the 3.8% surtax;
• If you have a one-time significant gain which brings you close to the threshold, try to defer, if possible, the recognition of additional income; and
• The surtax applies to passive activities, but not income from an activity in which a person is a material participant. It may be possible, with the advice of a tax advisor knowledgeable in the passive-activity rules, to increase participation in an activity in order to qualify as a material participant.

New 0.9% Medicare Tax on Wages and Self-Employment Income
The ACA increases the employee portion of the Medicare tax by an additional tax of 0.9% of wages and self-employment income received in excess of the threshold amounts as follows: $250,000 for joint returns, $125,000 for a married individual filing a separate return; or $200,000 for all other taxpayers.
As with the threshold amounts for the 3.8% surtax discussed above, these threshold amounts are not indexed for inflation, so as time passes, more taxpayers will be subject to the tax.
Unlike the current 1.45% Medicare tax on wages, the additional tax on a joint return is on the combined wages of the employee and the employee’s spouse.
The employer is required to withhold the additional 0.9% Medicare tax on wages in excess of $200,000, regardless of the person’s filing status or wages paid by another employer. It is possible that the person will owe more than the amount withheld. In that case, the employee should consider making estimated tax payments or increasing their withholding using Form W-4. If the person is self-employed, then he or she should consider increasing estimated tax payments.
If an employer withholds more than is required (for example, if an employee earns more than $200,000 but the joint return has total wages less than $250,000), then the excess withholding can be claimed as a credit on the employee’s income-tax return.
The 0.9% Medicare tax is calculated on Form 8959, which will be included in the individual’s tax return. To reduce or defer this 0.9% Medicare tax, consideration should be given to deferring income, if possible, to next year if income is above the threshold, especially if a non-recurring event occurred this year that increases wage and/or self-employment income above the threshold amount.

Conclusion
These new Medicare taxes will impact most high-income taxpayers. This has been a broad overview of the rules and planning strategies. There are more complicated rules and strategies beyond the scope of this article, especially with regard to investments in partnerships and subchapter S corporations.
For more information, you can go to www.irs.gov and search for “net investment income tax” or “additional Medicare tax,” or contact your tax advisor.

Michael J. Rowe is a principal with Wolf & Co., P.C., which has offices in Boston, Springfield, and other locations; (617) 428-5437; www.wolfandco.com

Calculated Decisions

By
Accounting and Tax Planning Sections
Effective Planning Now Can Lower Your Tax Burden

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

Tax planning is inherently complex, with the most powerful tax strategies often relying as much on clairvoyance as they do on calculations.
As 2013 begins to wind down, the need for a crystal ball lessens, and the ability to strategize with more certainty is upon us. This developing certainty provides opportunities for individuals and businesses to manage tax liabilities through tax-planning techniques.
Year-end tax planning has always been arduous, but early 2013 legislation complicated the tax structure by layering in new tax brackets and income buckets, bringing a multi-dimensional complication to tax planning this year.
In this article we focus on tax-planning techniques that can be executed during the remainder of 2013, but specific facts and circumstances may open up other opportunities or limit some of the tactics discussed.
Tax Strategies for Business Owners
Business equipment. Significant tax benefits remain available for business equipment purchases during 2013. A 50% bonus depreciation deduction is available for qualified property placed in service during 2013. The deduction is set to expire for 2014. To qualify for bonus depreciation, equipment must be new and placed in service by year-end.
Section 179 expensing rules provide full expensing for up to $500,000 of qualifying property placed in service during 2013. However, the full deduction is available only if the total amount of qualifying property placed in service in 2013 does not exceed $2 million. The Section 179 deduction limit is scheduled to be drastically reduced in 2014.
• Planning point: If you are planning to purchase a significant amount of machinery and equipment for your business in the next year or two, consider accelerating your order so the assets are delivered and placed into service by Dec. 31, 2013. To take full advantage of the Section 179 deduction, monitor total purchases to prevent its phaseout.
Deduction for qualified production activities income. Taxpayers can claim a deduction, subject to limits, for 9% of the lesser of (1) the taxpayer’s ‘qualified production activities income’ for the tax year (i.e., net income from U.S. manufacturing, production, or extraction activities; U.S. film production; U.S. construction activities; and U.S. engineering and architectural services), or (2) the taxpayer’s taxable income for that tax year, before taking this deduction into account. This deduction generally has the effect of a reduction in the taxpayer’s marginal rate and, thus, should be taken into account when making decisions regarding income-shifting strategies.
Net operating losses and debt-cancellation income. A business with a loss this year may be able to use that loss to generate cash in the form of a quick net operating loss carry-back refund. This type of refund may be of particular value to a financially troubled business that needs a fast cash transfusion to keep going.
There also are a number of different kinds of debt-cancellation or debt-reduction transactions that may generate taxable income in 2013 if not deferred until 2014.
Retirement Plans. Starting a small-business retirement-savings plan is easier than you think and offers significant tax advantages. Employer contributions are deductible from the employer’s income, employee contributions are not taxed until distributed to the employee, and investments in the program grow tax-deferred. Further, the tax law offers a small incentive of a $500-per-year tax credit for the first three years of a new SEP, SIMPLE, or other retirement plan to cover the initial setup expenses for certain small employers.

Individual Tax-rate Management
In prior years, the main concern was that, if you reduced your regular income tax too far, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would step in to appropriate your hard-earned tax savings. There are now additional dynamics to consider, when certain thresholds are exceeded, in the form of a 3.8% net-investment-income (NII) tax levied on investment income, a 0.9% Medicare payroll tax levied on wages and self-employment earnings, and a multi-tiered, long-term capital-gains tax-rate structure.
These new taxes, beginning in 2013, apply when adjusted gross income exceeds certain thresholds ranging from $200,000 for single filers to $250,000 for married taxpayers. For these thresholds and most others mentioned in this article, married filing separate uses one-half the married threshold.
Additionally, the 39.6% tax bracket returns this year after a long hiatus for taxpayers above thresholds ranging from $400,000 of taxable income for single filers to $450,000 for married filers.
Net investment income tax. The 3.8% NII tax now applies to most investment income. For individuals, the amount subject to the tax is the lesser of (1) the net investment income; or (2) the excess of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) over the applicable threshold amount.
NII includes dividends, rents, interest, passive-activity income, capital gains, annuities, and royalties. Passive pass-through income will be subject to this new tax, but non-passive will not. Self-employment income, income from an active trade or business, and portions of the gain on the sale of an active interest in a partnership or S corporation with investment assets, as well as IRA or qualified plan distributions, are not subject to the NII tax.
• Planning point: Weighing a decision about selling marketable securities to meet current cash needs? Consider using margin debt for replacement securities. The interest on the debt will be deductible, subject to the investment-interest limitation, which could reduce your NII for purposes of the new tax.
• Planning point: To the extent your NII is income from a passive activity, increasing your material participation in the activity between now and the end of the year can reduce the amount of income subject to the NII tax. Proceed with caution, though, because a change in participation level may impact other short- and long-term tax obligations.
• Planning point: As you near the applicable threshold, consider revising the timing of distributions from retirement plans to manage your net investment income. While the distributions themselves are not NII, the distributions increase your MAGI, which could subject more of your investment income to the NII tax.
Increased maximum tax rates on long-term capital gains. While avoiding or deferring tax may be your primary goal, to the extent there is income to report, the income of choice is long-term capital gain income thanks to the favorable tax rates available. The available rates differ depending on the taxpayer’s tax bracket.
Taxpayers in the 39.6% bracket will now pay a 20% long-term capital gains and qualified dividends rate. Additionally, those above the previously noted thresholds will pay the 3.8% tax in addition to the increased capital-gains rate.
• Planning point: The netting rules provide an opportunity to manage the net gain or loss subject to taxation, making it prudent to review your investment gains and losses before the close of year to determine whether additional transactions prior to year-end may improve your tax outlook.
Recognition of same-sex marriage for federal tax purposes. Beginning in 2013, legally married same-sex couples must file a joint or married-filing-separately return. The rules do not extend to cover domestic partnerships. The ruling is retroactive, opening up a refund opportunity in certain circumstances for those who were previously prohibited from joint filing. Amended returns may be, but are not required to be, filed for tax years still open by statute of limitations.

Year-end Timing Strategies
Managing the alternative minimum tax. The AMT applies when income, as adjusted for certain preference items, exceeds certain exemptions, but the rate applied to that income falls below the AMT rate, essentially acting as a tax-leveling mechanism. Residents of states with high income and property taxes, like Connecticut and Massachusetts, are more likely to be subject to the AMT because these state taxes are not deductible when computing AMT income.
The AMT exemptions are subject to phaseouts when AMT income exceeds $115,400 for single filers and $153,900 for married joint filers.
Delaying or prepaying expenses. As a cash-method taxpayer, you can deduct expenses when you pay them or charge them to your credit card. Payment by credit card is considered paid in the year the charge is incurred. Expenses that are commonly prepaid in connection with year-end tax planning include:
Charitable contributions. A tax deduction is available for cash contributions to qualified charities of up to 50% of adjusted gross income (AGI) and up to 30% (20% for gifts to private operating foundations) of your AGI for charitable gifts of appreciated property.
• Planning point: Consider contributing appreciated securities that you have held for more than one year. Usually, you will receive a charitable deduction for the full value of the securities, while avoiding the capital-gains tax that would be incurred upon sale of the securities.
State and local income taxes. Consider prepaying any state and local income taxes normally due on Jan. 15, 2014, or with the filing of the return if you do not expect to be subject to the AMT.
• Planning Point: If you expect to owe state and/or local income tax when you file your return for 2013, consider paying that amount before Dec. 31, 2013. Although you relinquish your cash in advance, the benefit from accelerating the tax deduction and lowering your current federal income tax could be significant. It is particularly powerful if the deduction could be lost through the AMT in 2014. Just be careful that your prepayment does not make you subject to AMT in 2013.
Real-estate taxes. Like state and local income taxes, real-estate tax levies due early in 2014 can often be prepaid in 2013. For real-estate taxes on your residence or other personal real estate, just be mindful of the AMT in both years. Real-estate tax on rental property is deductible whether or not you are subject to AMT, and it can be safely prepaid.
Mortgage interest. There are limits on your ability to deduct prepaid interest. However, to the extent your January mortgage payment reflects interest accrued as of Dec. 31, 2013, a payment prior to year-end will secure the interest deduction in 2013.
Other itemized deductions. Miscellaneous itemized deductions, like many deductions, are deductible only if you itemize your deductions and are not subject to AMT. Where miscellaneous itemized deductions differ is with the requirement that the total deductions exceed 2% of your AGI to be deductible.
Itemized deduction phaseout. After a three-year hiatus, 2013 marks the return of the phaseout of certain itemized deductions for higher-income taxpayers. For affected taxpayers, itemized deductions are reduced by 3% of the amount by which AGI exceeds thresholds ranging from $250,000 for a single filer to $300,000 for married joint filers.
However, deductions for medical expenses, investment interest, casualty and theft losses, and gambling losses are not subject to the limitation. Taxpayers cannot lose more than 80% of the itemized deductions subject to the phaseout.
Exemption phaseout. A personal exemption is generally available for you, your spouse if you are married and file a joint return, and each dependent (a qualifying child or qualifying relative who meets certain tests). In 2013, the exemption amount is $3,900, subject to a reinstated phaseout of the exemption for higher-income taxpayers. These phaseout thresholds begin at the same AGI limits discussed for itemized deductions above.
Retirement-plan distributions. If you are over age 59½ and your 2013 income is unusually low, consider taking a taxable distribution from your retirement plan, even if it is not required, to use the unusually low tax rate for the period. More powerful still, consider converting the funds to a Roth account.
• Planning point: If you expect to be in a higher tax bracket in the future, consider converting your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA during your lower-income years. You will be paying taxes early, but future appreciation of the assets in your account may escape income taxes entirely.
IRA distributions to charity. If you are over age 70½, you can make a tax-free distribution of up to $100,000 from your IRA to a qualified charity before Dec. 31, 2013. Under current law, this opportunity will not be available for 2014.
Note that this opportunity is doubly powerful beginning in 2013. In addition to prior tax benefits, now the IRA is not included in your MAGI, and thus this strategy may reduce exposure to the new 3.8% NII tax.
Worthless securities and bad debts. Both worthless securities and bad debts could give rise to capital losses. Since no transaction generally alerts you to this deduction, you should review your portfolio carefully.
• Planning point: If you own securities that have become worthless or made loans that have become uncollectible, ensure that the losses are deductible in the current year by obtaining substantive documentation to support the deduction.
Contributing to a retirement plan. You may be able to reduce your taxes by contributing to a retirement plan. If your employer sponsors a retirement plan, such as a 401(k), 403(b), or SIMPLE plan, your contributions avoid current taxation, as will any investment earnings until you begin receiving distributions from the plan. Some plans allow you to make after-tax Roth contributions, which will not reduce your current income, but you will generally have no tax to pay when those amounts, plus any associated earnings, are withdrawn in future years.
You and your spouse must have earned income to contribute to either a traditional or a Roth IRA. Only taxpayers with modified AGI below certain thresholds are permitted to contribute to a Roth IRA. If a workplace retirement plan covers you or your spouse, modified AGI also controls your ability to deduct your contribution to a traditional IRA. There is no AGI limit on your or your spouse’s deduction if you are not covered by an employer plan. If your modified AGI falls within the phaseout range, a partial contribution/deduction is still allowed.
• Planning point: If you would like to contribute to a Roth IRA, but your income exceeds the threshold, consider contributing to a traditional IRA for 2013, and convert the IRA to a Roth IRA in 2014. Be sure to inquire about the tax consequences of the conversion, especially if you have funds in other traditional IRAs.

Other Personal Tax-planning Considerations
Withholding/estimated tax payments. With higher rates in effect for 2013, more taxpayers may find themselves exposed to an underpayment penalty. Underpayment penalties can be avoided when total withholdings and estimated tax payments exceed the 2012 tax liability or, in the case of higher-income taxpayers, 110% of 2012 tax.
• Planning point: If you expect to be subject to an underpayment penalty for failure to pay your 2013 tax liability on a timely basis, consider increasing your withholding between now and the end of the year to reduce or eliminate the penalty. Increasing your final estimated tax deposit due Jan. 15, 2014 may reduce the amount of the penalty, but is unlikely to eliminate it entirely. Withholding, even if done on the last day of the tax year, is deemed withheld ratably throughout the tax year.
Losses from pass-through business entities. If your ability to deduct current-year losses from a partnership, LLC, or S corporation may be limited by your tax basis or the ‘at-risk’ rules, consider contributing capital to the entity or, in some cases, making a loan to the entity prior to Dec. 31, 2013, to secure your deduction this year.
• Planning point: If you anticipate a net loss from business activities in which you do not materially participate, consider disposing of the loss activity by Dec. 31, 2013. Assuming sufficient basis exists, all suspended losses become deductible when you dispose of the activity. Even if there is a gain on the disposition, you may still benefit from having the long-term capital gain taxed at 23.8% (inclusive of the NII tax) with the previously suspended losses offsetting other ordinary income.
American opportunity tax credit (AOTC). The AOTC for college costs has been extended for five years through 2017. A credit of up to $2,500 may be claimed during the first four years of college. The credit phases out for AGI in excess of $80,000 for single taxpayers and $160,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return.
• Planning point: If your income is too high for you to qualify for the AOTC, consider gifting your children the funds necessary to pay the qualified education expenses, making them eligible to claim the AOTC.
Energy credit. The $1,500 credit for new windows and doors has expired, but a credit of up to $500 for residential energy property is still available if prior years’ credits were not taken.
Estate and gift taxes. For 2013, taxpayers are permitted to make tax-free gifts of up to $14,000 per year, per recipient ($28,000 if married and using a gift-splitting election, or if each spouse uses separate funds). By making these gifts annually, taxpayers can transfer significant wealth out of their estate without using any of their lifetime exclusion.
• Planning point: Consider making similar gifts early in 2014. Each year brings a new annual exclusion, and a gift early in the year transfers next year’s appreciation out of your estate.
• Planning point: Additional gifts can be made using the lifetime gift exclusion, which is $5.25 million ($10.5 million for married couples) in 2013. Future exclusions are indexed for inflation. The recent increases to the exclusion make it a good time to review any existing estate and gift plans to ensure they best meet your needs.
• Planning point: When combined with other estate and gift-planning techniques, such as Section 529 plans to help fund your children’s or grandchildren’s college education, the potential exists to avoid or reduce estate and gift taxes while transferring significant wealth to other family members.

Conclusion
The changes initiated during 2013 added layers of complexity to an already difficult tax system, but with a purposeful, informed plan in place, taxpayers can still reap significant benefits. Consult your tax advisor so they can best support you in building your plan for 2013 and beyond.

Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST is a partner with the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, and director of the firm’s Taxation Division; [email protected]

PictureThis

By
Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to:  ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Scientific Reality

ElmsSciBuildingMore than 100 Elms College students and faculty members attended a dedication ceremony last month for the school’s new 22,000-square-foot Center for Natural and Health Sciences (CNHS). The facility includes a research laboratory, multiple lecture halls, and several other labs for biology, chemistry, and nursing. Pictured at the ceremony are, from left, Paul Stelzer, vice chair of the Board of Trustees; Maxyne Schneider, SSJ, president of the congregation Sisters of Saint Joseph, Springfield; William Lyons III, CNHS Committee co-chair; the Most Rev. Timothy McDonnell, D.D., Bishop of Springfield; Cynthia Lyons, CNHS Committee co-chair; Elms President, Mary Reap; and Walter Breau, vice president of Academic Affairs.

Rays of Hope

20131020RaysofHopeWalk-181120131020RaysofHopeWalk2168The 2013 Rays of Hope Walk-A Walk and Run Toward the Cure of Breast Cancer, staged Oct. 20 in Forest Park in Springfield and Energy Park in Greenfield, raised $750,000 and celebrated a few milestones. This year marked the 20th year for the walk, which was created to raise funds to improve the breast health of the people in local communities with quality and compassion in partnership with Baystate Health Breast Network. The day also marked the five-year anniversary of the Franklin County event, and the fourth year for the Annual Run in Springfield. This year’s walkers and runners added to the nearly $12 million that has been raised by Rays of Hope since its inception. At top are Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros. mascots from Six Flags New England, and below, are some of the 24,000 participants walking at Forest Park.

Celebrating the Super 60

AM7J0292-6x4AM7J0349-6x4AM7J0221-6x4IMG_9065-6x4












The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield staged its annual Super 60 luncheon on Oct. 25 at Chez Josef in Agawam, an event that celebrates the region’s top-performing companies in the categories of total revenue and revenue growth. Top to bottom, left, David Mahan, estimator and sales manager of Mahan Slate Roofing Co. in Springfield, the top finisher in the revenue growth category, receives the company’s plaque from Maura McCaffrey, left, chief operating officer of Health New England, the program’s presenting sponsor, and Meghan Sullivan, a partner with the law firm Sullivan Hayes & Quinn, a platinum sponsor; Scott Berg, center, associate Vice President for Development at Springfield College, the top performer in the total revenue category, receives the school’s plaque from McCaffrey and Glenn Welch, president of Hampden Bank; Jessica Montana, left, and Angie Gregory, principals with Simple Diaper and Linen, present the luncheon’s keynote address; a sellout crowd takes in the proceedings.
(Photographs courtesy of Ed Cohen)

Court Dockets

By
Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Javier Morales v. PVTA
Allegation: Negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing personal injury: $4,883.51
Filed: 9/23/13

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Eastfield Glass Company Inc. v. Fontaine Inc. and Federal Insurance Company
Allegation: Breach of construction agreement for new high school and monies owed: $80,912.50
Filed: 10/11/13

Fred L. Aaron v. Creating Comfort Outlet, LLP and Joshua Barina and Jose Barina Jr.
Allegation: Breach of lease agreement: $163,658.35
Filed: 10/4/13

RK Petroleum Inc. v. Arya Petroleum Corp.
Allegation: Breach of promissory note: $315,000
Filed: 10/9/13

University Driving School Inc. v. Anthony R. Gomez d/b/a Western Mass Auto Academy
Allegation: Violation of agreement not to compete: $2,500
Filed: 10/1/13

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
John Mesheau v. IKO Manufacturing Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract and express and implied warranties and unfair and deceptive trade practices: $60,000+
Filed: 9/6/13

PALMER DISTRICT COURT
Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, EIG, & Cooper, Chartered v. Hampden Structural Steel Inc. d/b/a Private Garden Greenhouse Systems
Allegation: Non-payment on previous judgment: $9,263.09
Filed: 8/26/13

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Ashaunti Lawrence v. Fara Leasing Inc.
Allegation: Negligent operation by a taxicab driver causing injury: $4,257.32
Filed: 9/20/13

Robert D. Manz v. Pioneer Valley Transit Authority
Allegation: Breach of contract: $2,400+
Filed: 10/7/13

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By
Chamber Corners Departments

AFFILIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555
• Nov. 6: Business@Breakfast, 7:30- 9 a.m., at the Western Mass Business Expo, MassMutual Center, Springfield. Keynote speaker: Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Co. and maker of the Samuel Adams family of beers. Hear the story of how Koch took his generations-old family recipe and changed the beverage landscape forever. Sponsored by the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, MassMutual Center, United Personnel, and Frigo’s Foods. Reservations are $25 and may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by contacting Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Nov. 13: ACCGS After 5, 5-7 p.m., the TD Bank Building. Sponsored by TD Bank. Tickets are $5 for members, $10 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by contacting Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Nov. 21: ACCGS Government Reception, 5-7 p.m. at the Carriage House, Storrowton Tavern, West Springfield. A great opportunity to meet socially with your local, state, and federal officials. Sponsored by Baystate Health, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, and United Personnel. Tickets are $50 for members, $70 for general admission, which includes complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.
• Nov. 26: ACCGS Pastries, Politics, and Policy, 7:30-9 a.m. Reservations are $15 for members, $20 for general admission, and includes complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Call (413) 755-1313 for more information. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.
• Dec. 4: ACCGS Business @ Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Colony Club, Springfield. Topic: “The Value of Volunteerism.” Sponsored By Masiello Employment Services. Tickets are $20 for members, $30 for general admission, which includes complimentary beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700
• Nov. 20: Chamber After 5, 5-7 p.m., at the Amherst Survival Center. Sponsored by SciDose LLC. Admission: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900
• Nov. 6: Arrive@5 Chamber Networking Event, 5-7 p.m., at the World War II Club. Sponsors: Homeward Vets. Catered by Big Kats Catering. We’ll be collecting donations for Homeward Vets. A list of needed donations will be posted on the website. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP to Esther at [email protected].
• Nov: 19: “The Art of Consulting,” 8:30-10 a.m. at the chamber office. This special program is a collection of the guiding principles of consulting that sum up the lessons presenter Don Lesser he has learned over the past 30 years. Each topic is summarized in a short, often humorous saying, which is followed by a longer explanation. In this session, Lesser, who has been a consultant and run a business that uses consultants for more than 30 years, will cover some of the basics of being a consultant, including “The Three Laws of Consulting,” “What Have You Done for Me Lately?” “Rules for Good Client Management,” and “Discount Sushi, or How Much Should You Charge?” The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required, and space is limited. To register, call (413) 584-1900, or e-mail www.explorenorthampton.com.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618
• Nov. 4: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m., at the Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center, 53 Mill St., Westfield. Have coffee with Mayor Daniel Knapik, who will share information about what’s happening in the city. For more information or to register, contact Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618.
• Nov. 6: 2013 Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner at the Westwood Restaurant, 94 North Elm St., Westfield. More information to come as this event date approaches.
• Nov. 13: WestNet, 5-7 p.m., the Cove, 90 Point Grove Road, Southwick. Come and meet chamber members and bring your business cards for a great networking opportunity. Cost: $10 cash for chamber members, $15 cash for non-members. Payment can be made in advance or at the door.  Walk-ins are welcome. Call the chamber at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail Pam Bussell at [email protected] for more information. Your first WestNet is always free.

MASSACHUSETTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
(413) 525-2506
• Nov. 12: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, 9 a.m. registration, at the Double Tree, Westborough. For more information on ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities, call the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY
www.thenayp.com
(413) 584-1900
• Nov. 14: November Networking Social, 5 p.m., at the Northampton Brewery. Community involvement, networking, business and professional development. NAYP is excited to host its first event at the famed Northampton Brewery. Enjoy delicious beer and savory hors d’oeuvres. Cost: free for members, $10 for non-members. RSVP on Facebook.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER
www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310
• Nov. 6: November Luncheon at the Western Mass. Business Expo, at the MassMutual Center, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Keynote Speaker: Kathrine Switzer, first female Boston Marathoner in 1967. More than 40 years later, Switzer’s story continues to capture the public’s imagination. Reservations cost $35 members, $40 for non-members, and may be made at www.myonlinechamber.com or by contacting Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.

Agenda

By
Agenda Departments

Western Mass. Business Expo 2013
Nov. 6: Get ready for the Western Mass. Business Expo 2013, a day-long business-to-business event to take place at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. This fall’s show, the third edition of the Expo, which is again being produced by BusinessWest, will feature more than 100 exhibitors, seminars on timely issues of the day, special Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the wrap-up Expo social, which has become a not-to-be-missed networking event. The breakfast speaker will be Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams, while the lunch speaker will be author, activist, and marathon runner Kathrine Switzer. This issue of BusinessWest contains all you need to know about event details, which can also be found online at www.wmbexpo.com or www.businesswest.com. For more information on the event, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Civil War Lecture
Nov. 9: Civil War historian Walter Powell will deliver a free talk titled “So Clear of Victory: Emily Dickinson’s Gettysburg Address” at the Amherst History Museum at 3 p.m. The talk, co-sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum and the Amherst History Museum, will highlight contributions made by Amherst and the region to the Battle of Gettysburg and President Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863. A special focus will be on Emily Dickinson’s circle of friends and acquaintances involved in the battle, including Samuel Fiske and Springfield Republican publisher and editor Samuel Bowles. Powell has lectured widely on battlefield preservation and the Battle of Gettysburg, and is the editor (with the late Charles Hamblen) of Connecticut Yankees at Gettysburg. Powell was recently named executive director of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, and previously served as executive director of the Conococheague Institute of Cultural Heritage in Mercersburg, Pa. For 17 years, he was director of Planning and Historic Preservation for the Borough of Gettysburg. There, he directed the restoration of the Gettysburg Railroad Station (built in 1858), and served as the project historian and borough liaison to the National Park Service Project Team that planned the restoration and exhibit plan for the David Wills House, where Lincoln completed the Gettysburg Address. He is also a past board member of the Emily Dickinson International Society.  The Amherst History Museum is located at 67 Amity St. in Amherst. For more information about the talk, visit www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events.

Pynchon Awards
Nov. 21: The Trustees of the Order of William Pynchon and the Advertising Club of Western Mass. will honor the recipients of the 2013 William Pynchon Award — Jean Caldwell, Jean Gailun, Joan Kagan, and Sirdeaner Walker — at Chez Josef in Agawam. The Order of William Pynchon was established in 1915 for the purpose of giving public recognition to citizens of the region who have rendered distinguished civic service, a noble legacy and honor the Ad Club is proud to bestow. Cocktails will be served from 6 p.m., with dinner and the awards program beginning at 7 p.m. The cost is $70 per person, and tables of 10 are available. RSVP by Nov. 14 by calling (413) 736-2582 or e-mailing [email protected], including any special dietary considerations and a listing of table guests who wish to be seated together (for parties of 10).b

People On the Move

By
Departments People on the Move

Bryan Moore

Bryan Moore

Country Bank recently named Bryan Moore Small Business Lending Officer, Commercial Lending Department. In this role, Moore will connect with regional business owners and assist small businesses with lending and business-banking needs, specifically through the SBA Express Program, which offers a quick turnaround and a fair-priced lending alternative to qualified borrowers. Moore began his banking career as a Personal Banking Representative for Sovereign Bank in 2006 and earned a BS with a double major in International Business and International Economics from Assumption College.
•••••



Keith Minoff

Keith Minoff

Springfield-based Attorney Keith Minoff has been selected for inclusion on the 2014 list of Massachusetts Super Lawyers. The Super Lawyers selection process is based on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Only 5% of the lawyers in each state are selected each year for inclusion. In practice for over 25 years, Minoff specializes in business and employment litigation.
•••••






Tonya Laird

Tonya Laird

North Brookfield Savings Bank announced the promotion of Tonya Laird to Branch Manager at the bank’s North Brookfield/Gilbert Street location from the her previous position of Assistant Branch Manager. Laird joined North Brookfield Savings in 2002 as a teller, and brings an employment and educational background in customer service, management, IRAs, and other facets of banking and finance.
•••••






Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle

Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle

Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle, Esq., an attorney at Royal LLP, a Northampton-based, woman-owned, management-side labor and employment law firm, has been elected to serve as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hampshire Regional YMCA.
•••••
Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., with offices in Springfield, Worcester and Meriden, Conn., announced that six of the firm’s attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2013 Super Lawyers list for their contributions to employment law. Each year, no more than 5% of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor:


Ralph Abbott Jr

Ralph Abbott Jr

• Ralph Abbott Jr., a partner since 1975, represents management in labor relations and employment-related matters, providing employment-related advice to employers, assisting clients in remaining union-free, and representing employers before the National Labor Relations Board. Abbott also has numerous credits as an author, editor, and teacher; boasts a record of civic and community involvement; has been ranked as one of the best labor and employment attorneys in Massachusetts by the prestigious Chambers USA rating service; and has been named Best Lawyers Management Lawyer of the Year in Springfield for 2014;



Marylou Fabbo

Marylou Fabbo

• Marylou Fabbo, a partner in the Springfield office, joined the firm in 1995. Head of the firm’s litigation team, she practices in all areas of employment litigation and provides counsel to management on taking proactive steps to reduce the risk of legal liability that may be imposed as the result of illegal employment practices, and defends employers who are faced with lawsuits and administrative charges filed by current and former employers;






Susan Fentin

Susan Fentin

• Susan Fentin, a partner in the firm, joined the practice in 1999 after spending several years working in the labor and employment department of a large Hartford firm. Fentin is editor of the Massachusetts Employment Law Letter and has been ranked as one of the best labor and employment attorneys in Massachusetts by the prestigious Chambers USA rating service. She teaches master classes on both the FMLA and the ADA and is experienced in both labor law and employment litigation;






John Glenn

John Glenn

• John Glenn, a partner of the firm since 1979, has spent his career representing management in labor relations and employment-related matters. He assists clients in remaining union-free and represents employers before the National Labor Relations Board. Glenn has extensive experience negotiating collective-bargaining agreements and representing employers at arbitration hearings and before state and federal agencies. Prior to joining the firm, Glenn was employed by the National Labor Relations Board in Cincinnati. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Labor Law at Western New England University School of Law and is a member of the American Academy of Hospital Attorneys;



Kimberly Klimczuk

Kimberly Klimczuk

• Kimberly Klimczuk joined the firm in 2004 and concentrates her practice on labor law and employment litigation. Her experience includes negotiating collective-bargaining agreements and advising on contract interpretation, and successfully defending clients in state and federal court and before administrative agencies in a variety of areas of employment law, including wage-and-hour law, discrimination, harassment, wrongful discharge, breach of contract, and workers’ compensation claims. She has assisted employers in compliance matters involving the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs; and



Jay Presser

Jay Presser

• Jay Presser has more than 35 years of experience litigating employment cases, has successfully defended employers in civil actions and jury trials, and has handled cases in all areas of employment law, including discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, wage-and-hour law, FMLA, ERISA, and defamation. Presser has won appeals before the Supreme Judicial Court and the First and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals, and represented employers in hundreds of arbitration cases arising under collective-bargaining agreements.
•••••


Anabela Blake

Anabela Blake

TD Bank has promoted Anabela Blake to Assistant Vice President, Store Manager II in the store located at 60 Main St. in Westfield. She will continue to be responsible for new business development, consumer and business lending, managing personnel, and overseeing the day-to-day operations at the store. Blake has 25 years of experience in retail sales and banking and joined TD Bank in 2004 as an Assistant Store Manager before her most recent position as Store Manager I. Blake is a 1995 graduate of Western New England University.
•••••

The YMCA of Greater Springfield recently announced the advancement of two of the organization’s senior leaders:

Kristine Allard

Kristine Allard

• Kristine Allard was named Chief Operating Officer and will oversee all operations for the association’s three family centers, as well as fund development and communications for the organization. Serving in the agency’s number-two position, Allard joined the YMCA of Greater Springfield in 2011 as Vice President of Development & Communications; and





Robin Olejarz

Robin Olejarz

• Robin Olejarz has added the title of Chief Administrative Officer to her role as Chief Financial Officer. In addition to managing the association’s financial health, Olejarz, who joined the YMCA team in 2006, will provide oversight to the agency’s policies, standards and procedures, human resources, and projects, facilities, and risk management.

News

Contact

Advertise

Events